Tom has had the great privilege to serve at the highest levels of the US government, both as a civilian and military officer, including the White House, US Senate and Dept of Defense.  His expertise in national security issues and government relations is widely recognized by key government and industry leaders alike.

Tom began his 40 year national security career as an Air Force pilot and participated in numerous critical worldwide operations including Desert One and Grenada.  His last assignment on active duty was Air Force Aide to President Ronald Reagan during which he carried the “nuclear football” and attended the President on the days he was reelected and re-inaugurated.

Following this unique assignment, Tom was selected as the Assistant for National Security Affairs to Republican Leader Bob Dole in the US Senate during which he staffed many critical defense, veterans and foreign policy issues.  New Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney then recruited Tom to be the Department’s principal Senate liaison as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs wherein he successfully worked to pass the Use of Force Resolution to start Operation Desert Storm.

After several years of successful consulting and additional flying, Tom returned to government service in 2003 performing duty on the shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation Board and then took another challenging assignment to Iraq as the chief legislative liaison for the Coalition Provisional Authority wherein he hosted congressional members in Iraq weekly.  He subsequently returned to Iraq and Afghanistan in military reserve status.  He retired from Air Force Reserve duty in May 2009 while serving as the Mobilization Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force.

Most recently, Tom was the Vice President for Government Relations at Elbit Systems of America and retired Oct 1, 2015.  He remains a national security affairs consultant and volunteers his time to mentor senior military personnel and congressional staff.  He holds a Masters of Art in Government from Georgetown University and has flown over 10,000 hours as a military and civilian pilot.

Tom can be contacted at tom@tlcarter.com