Dennis Wischmeier is a Professional Staff Member and Sen. Collins’ Committee Designee for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Prior to his Aug 2022 start, he retired from 23 years of military service in the Navy & Marine Corps.  His most recent position was as the Deputy Director for Intelligence on the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon, where he was a senior intelligence briefer to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on issues such as the  Russia/Ukraine crisis and China/Taiwan tensions during the CODEL Pelosi’s visit.

   From 2019-2021, he served in Japan, as the senior Intelligence officer for undersea warfare, responsible for the Pacific, Indian and Middle East waters.  Supporting blue force         operations and as the senior advisor for undersea threats.

Dennis previously served in the Senate in 2016 as a Department of Defense Legislative Fellow in Sen. King’s (D-ME) office, then from 2017-2018 as U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and NATO’s Chief of Senate Affairs.  From 2017-2018, he advanced legislation which greatly increased the European Defense Initiative / European Reassurance Initiative from $2b to $4b dollars, which laid the foundation for actions we see in this theater today.

Between 2012-2015, Dennis served as a senior Aide to the Deputy Director Naval Intelligence, and as the head of the Chief of Naval Operations’ (CNO) transition team, where he ran training and operations essential for the transition of leadership for the U.S. Navy, while also assisting with the foundation of the U.S. Navy’s next set of service-wide strategic guidance documents.

Prior to this, between 2009-2011, he served in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as a senior intelligence officer for the submarine force in the Pacific Ocean; after which remaining in Hawaii to serve as the Head of Intelligence for a U.S. SEAL Team.

From 2005-2008, Dennis was a Deputy Admiral’s Aide on the Navy’s Headquarters Staff in Washington DC, primarily working on Navy-wide policy for world-wide Naval operations.

In 2001, he started his U.S. Navy officer career, which after flight school, proceeded as a Naval Aviator on the EP-3 platform, with 7 worldwide deployments including Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Dennis is a prior enlisted U.S. Marine, having joined in 1995 and served 2 years until accepting a commissioning program out of The George Washington University (GWU).  During which, he participated in the NROTC Program, and concurrently served in the House of Representatives as a LC to then-Rep. Bill Jenkins (R-TN-01). 

He is currently an Adjunct Professor at GWU, has an MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School, a masters certificate from Georgetown, and has completed 3 congressionally-related Fellowships.  Dennis lives in Fairfax, VA, along with his wife, Tami, and sons Ethan and Eli.  His oldest, Isabel, is a Sophomore at Baylor University.  He enjoys running, hiking and family travels and exploring.