Tim Tuttle, Commander

Branch of Service: Retired Air Force Reserve (8 years), Active Duty Air Force 14 years, Army Reserve (6 years), Kansas Army National Guard (3 years)

Years of Service: See above

Rank: Colonel/O-6

Military Role and Summary:  I was a Judge Advocate (JAG) in the Air Force. I served as the Chief of Claims at Kirtland AFB (Albuquerque, NM); the Chief of Justice at Ramstein AB, Germany; the Chief of the Medical Law Department at Wilford Hall Medical Center (Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX); the Senior Ranking Officer of the Video Teleconference Litigation Team, Task Force 134, Central Criminal Court of Iraq (Baghdad, Iraq), a student with the Air Force Institute of Technology Post-Graduate Legal Program at George Washington University Law School (Washington, DC); the Deputy Chief of the Air Force Labor Law Field Support Center (Rosslyn, VA); the founder and Chief of the National Guard Bureau Office of Complex Investigations (OCI) (Arlington, VA); and the Supervising Individual Mobilization Augmentee at Andrews Air Force Base, MD. 

Fondest Military Memory: Seeing my son after I returned from Iraq in 2006.

My greatest accomplishment was the creation and leading the Office of Complex Investigations within the National Guard Bureau, which investigates allegations of sexual assault where subjects are in state status, as opposed to federal status under Title 10. The Army Complex Investigations Division (CID) and Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) have no jurisdiction to investigate criminal allegations unless the subject is in federal status under Title 10 of the US Code. OCI conducts administrative investigations to ensure Commanders can be confident their Soldiers and Airman are not being led by or deployed with those who have founded allegations of sexual abuse against other servicemembers, even if they cannot be prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. As a Lieutenant Colonel (O-5), I created the organization, to include writing the implementing policy documents and manual of investigative and operational procedures, secured funding for operations, recruited and trained over 100 part-time investigators (Guardsmen), and oversaw the conduct and processing of over 20 administrative investigations. OCI now has over 20 full-time investigators and is led by a General Officer.

Why serve in the VFW: I serve in the VFW because I want to continue my service to my country and to my brothers and sisters-in-arms, including those whose jobs were significantly more difficult than mine as I was prosecuting terrorists and foreign fighters in Iraq. Also because my son is in the Navy, and I want to ensure that the organization which looks out for Veterans is a strong, effective, and viable organization when he becomes a Veteran.