Overview
Colonel (Ret.) Pat Proctor, PhD, is an assistant professor in the homeland security
program at Wichita State University.
Colonel (Ret.) Proctor is a U.S. Army veteran of both the Afghanistan and the Iraq
wars, with over twenty-five years of service in command and staff positions from Fort
Hood, Texas, to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; he most recently deployed to Jordan, on
the front lines of the war on The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as the commander
of the Gunner Battalion (4th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery). In 2012 Proctor served
as the chief of plans for Regional Command—East in Afghanistan, planning the transition
of the war to Afghan security forces ahead of the withdrawal of most American forces.
In 2009 he deployed to Iraq as operations officer for Task Force Patriot (2nd Battalion,
32nd Field Artillery), an artillery-turned-infantry battalion battling insurgents
in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. In 2007 Proctor was drafted to work in Iraq
as part of a handpicked, twenty-man team of soldiers, scholars, and diplomats led
by Col. H. R. McMaster and commissioned by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan
Crocker to create a new strategy for the war in Iraq. Proctor worked with a U.S. State
Department counterpart to write the strategic communication plan for what has since
become known as the Iraq “surge.”
Colonel (Ret.) Proctor has written extensively on current affairs, military history,
and military simulation topics. He is the author of Lessons Unlearned: The U.S. Army’s
Role in Creating the Forever Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Containment and Credibility:
The Ideology and Deceptions That Plunged America into the Vietnam War, and Task Force
Patriot and the End of Combat Operations in Iraq, and coauthor of ASVAB AFQT Cram
Plan. He has also written articles for the Phi Alpha Theta history honor society journal,
the Historian; the U.S. Army War College journal Parameters; Henley-Putnam University’s
Journal of Strategic Security, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College’s journal
Military Review; and consumer magazines including Armchair General and Military Simulations
& Training.
Colonel (Ret.) Proctor holds a doctorate in history from Kansas State University and
a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. He also holds
a master’s degree in military arts for theater operations from the highly selective
School of Advanced Military Studies, a third master’s degree in military arts for
strategy from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and a bachelor’s degree
in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.
Pat Proctor lives in historic Leavenworth, the first city of Kansas, just outside
the gates of Fort Leavenworth with his wife Aree. He currently serves the people
of Leavenworth and Fort Leavenworth as their Kansas State Representative.