John Blaine is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, a decorated combat veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and a former Distinguished Military Graduate of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He served in the Marine Corps for three years before entering the U.S
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Naval Academy in 1982 where he graduated with honors and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1986. He was subsequently assigned to the 3rd Marine Division (the Old Guard) at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where he served as an anti-armor platoon commander and an anti-tank platoon commander in support of NATO operations during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also served at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., and at Headquarters Marine Corps in Arlington, Virginia, and was then assigned to the Office of the Commandant of the Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., where he worked on counter-terrorism initiatives and served as a member of the Joint Task Force for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (JTF-CCWMD).
In 2001 he was awarded his second Navy Commendation Medal for his good work in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom I and II — Operation Iraqi Freedom II ended when he accepted a command assignment with Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay (JTF-GTMO) in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — where he served as executive officer and later as commanding officer (CO) of JTF-GTMO's Combined Joint Task Force 165 (CJTF-165). While serving as CO of JTF-GTMO's Joint Detention Group (JTG), he oversaw all operations at Camp Delta detention facility on Guantanamo Bay. Upon completion of this duty he returned to his alma mater, where he is currently teaching courses on leadership, security studies, military operations analysis, national security issues for officers-in-training, international law for military lawyers, terrorism issues for military lawyers, ethics for military lawyers, the history of counterinsurgency warfare for officers-in-training, human intelligence collection operations for senior officers-in-training, force protection for military lawyers, ethics for judges advocate general's corps officers at The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School (JAGLC&S), ethics for JAGLC&S staff attorneys & professional staff attorneys at The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School (JAGLC&S), principles of lawfulness under armed conflict for JAGLC&S
