The Defense Intelligence Agency celebrates its 50th birthday this Saturday. Hopefully, you’ve already bought them a gift.
The agency was founded on October 1, 1961, to collect and organize the large amounts of intelligence coming throughout the different sectors of the Defense of Defense following a study commissioned by President Eisenhower. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara commissioned the agency following the report while serving underneath President Kennedy.
Today, DIA manages and supplies all-source intelligence, and since the terrorist attacks of 2001, an ever-increasing amount of DIA intelligence professionals have deployed globally alongside warfighters and interagency partners.
“We are more forward-deployed than ever, operating alongside our combat troops in harm’s way,” DIA Director Army Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess Jr. said. “DIA has an entire generation of intelligence professionals who know only wartime service. … They are very good at what they do, they’re committed to the mission, and they’re the best we’ve ever had.”
