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Home : JTF - Red Hill : Leadership : Leadership View

Brig. Gen. Lance A. Okamura

Director, Strategic Engagement, Joint Task Force-Red Hill

Brigadier General Lance A. Okamura is an honor graduate from Kamehameha Schools in the State of Hawaii and a distinguished military graduate from Brigham Young University. He has completed a post graduate degree in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and is a graduate of the Defense Nuclear Weapons School. He is a former resident of Southeast Asia, and he reads and speaks Mandarin Chinese.

As a Military Police Officer, Okamura served with the 25th Infantry Division, XVIII Airborne Corps and the USA Office of Military Support at Fort Bragg, and as a Phoenix Ravens team leader with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOC). He deployed in support of operations Provide Refuge, Joint Guardian, Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle and the Hurricane Floyd Disaster Relief Mission.

Okamura served as a National Intelligence Support Team commander and joint operations officer for the Chairman’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Director for Intelligence, as deputy commander for the DIA Defense Human Intelligence Contingency Operating Base-Afghanistan, and as the executive officer for the DIA Defense Intelligence Senior Office-Afghanistan. He provided direct national intelligence support to Joint SOC, U.S. Southern Command, and to other government agencies-coalition forces in various expeditionary operations.

Okamura’s past strategic-level staff assignments include serving as the chief of Counter-Terrorism Programs for SOC-Pacific, deputy director for the Joint Interagency Coordination Group and director for the Office of FBI-Military Affairs Counter-Terrorism at U.S. Pacific Command, as a director and Assistant Chief of Staff for Headquarters U.S. Army Pacific, as the Chief of Department of Defense Detainee Operations and the National Detainee Reporting Center in Washington, D.C., and as the commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo.

Okamura is a graduate of Syracuse University's Maxwell School of National Security Studies Management Program. His civilian education consists of three master of science degrees from Columbus University, the National Intelligence University, and the U.S. Army War College. His military education includes the Senior Service College, Command and General Staff College, Combined Arms Services Staff School, and other anti-terrorism, intelligence, and special operations courses.

His awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, and other awards. Okamura wears the Combat Action Badge, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Expert Field Medic Badge, the U.S. Air Force Master Force Protection Badge, Army Staff ID Badge, Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ID Badge, and other foreign badges.

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