Ed Ross is the President and Chief Executive Officer of EWRoss International LLC. He is the former Principal Director, Security Cooperation Operations, Defense Security Cooperation Agency; former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/MIA Affairs; and former Senior Director for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
As a US Army Officer he served as the Assistant Army Attaché to the People’s Republic of China, as a senior political-military analyst in the Defense Intelligence Agency, and as the Chief, Counterespionage-Counterintelligence, 500th Military Intelligence Group, Hawaii, where he directed operations in the Asia Pacific theater.
His military service includes two tours of duty in Vietnam. As an artillery forward and air observer with the 9th Infantry Division’s Mobile Riverine Force in the Mekong Delta, he flew more than 300 combat and combat support missions in O-1 and H-23 aircraft. As a military intelligence officer, he commanded intelligence-collection detachments of the 525th Military Intelligence Group in Pleiku and Nha Trang.
Ed Ross’ civilian awards include the rank of Meritorious Senior Executive, conferred by President George W. Bush; three Secretary of Defense Medals for Meritorious Civilian Service, conferred by Secretaries Dick Cheney, William Perry, and Robert Gates; the Order of Resplendent Banner with Yellow Grand Cordon, presented by Republic of China Minister of Defense Lee Tien-yu, and the Outstanding Achievement Medal, presented by Philippine Secretary of National Defense, Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr.
His military awards include the Silver Star, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal with “V” Device with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Commendation Medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Gold Star, and the Aircraft Crewman’s Badge. Ed Ross was inducted into the Artillery Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame in May 1997.
Ed Ross has completed extensive postgraduate work in International Relations and United States Domestic Politics at The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. He received his Master of Arts Degree in National Security Affairs, “With Distinction,” from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Quincy College, Quincy, Illinois.
He is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas; the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Washington, D.C.; the Defense Language Institute, Washington, DC; and the American Embassy School for Chinese Language and Area Studies, Taichung, Taiwan.
He has traveled extensively throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. He is the author of numerous articles on US-China-Taiwan military relations and other topics.
Ed Ross writes a weekly Internet column posted at EWRoss.com and he hosts a weekly radio show at http://blogtalkradio.com/ewross.
