ABOUT US

Amel and Karan Smith of Aquila Spirit 777 Inc.

Aquila Spirit 777 is owned, operated, led, and managed by Amel E. Smith, a retired 20-year US Army Officer/veteran who last served as the Commander, National Capital Region Military Intelligence Detachment, Fort Belvoir, VA. His background consists of 20 years of military service. His first assignment at 18 years old was with the 82nd Airborne Division as an enlisted Infantry Paratrooper, where he formed and developed the foundations of his life and career—brotherhood, loyalty, fearlessness, leadership, and the mandated goal of mission accomplishment, no matter how small or large the mission.

Later in his military career, as a Counterintelligence (CI) Special Agent and a military officer, he formed the pillars of his future successes: honesty, integrity, trust, faith, dedication, compassion, and forgiveness.

Mr. Smith served in combat operations in Desert Storm I/Kuwait and Grenada. He provided intel and force protection support in Haiti and Bosnia. He served as an Operations Officer, the Counterintelligence Special Agent in Charge, Counter Espionage officer at the Pentagon Resident Office, and a Detachment Commander in the US Intelligence and Security Command in Italy, Germany, and the Washington DC National Capital region.

He also spent a year in Panmunjom, Korea, standing toe-to-toe with armed North Korean soldiers on the MDL.

Background: Mr. Smith brings forty-three (43) years of operational, managerial, and technical expertise and experience supporting the Military and, as a civilian, numerous U.S. Government Agencies. His background includes experience in conducting security-oriented investigations and training. He is a highly skilled and experienced investigator, skilled at the collection of background information concerning foreign and domestic individuals, groups, and organizations that pose a threat to national security. He is highly skilled in interrogation techniques and skilled in liaison abilities with local and federal law enforcement, intelligence, and security agencies. He has an extensive background in conducting physical surveys of installations and facilities to identify and minimize vulnerabilities. His extensive background in public speaking and formal briefs of groups up to 500 plus personnel includes general officers and senior civilians. He has formal training and qualification as an instructor. He is a certified Counterintelligence Special Agent, Cryptologic facility inspector, Special Security Officer, and Italian linguist.

After his superior military career and honorable discharge, Mr. Smith spent 12 years directly assigned to and supporting the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), Department of State (DoS), as a MANTECH company Director and an onsite Program Manager with the title “Senior Technical Advisor” to the Director of the Office of Information Security, managing an 80-million-dollar contract, with over 80 personnel located in 5 countries and 5 different US locations. He supported on-the-ground operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Israel, Egypt, Yemen, the Philippines, China, and numerous other US Embassy locations. He designed, developed, and implemented several security programs including the Insider Threat Program, the Cyber Security Program, the Special Security Operations Office, including operations, information, personnel, and facility Security programs, and the TS/SCI systems information assurance Program for the Intelligence and Research Bureau (INR). He designed and managed several IT systems solutions such as Fellowship of Hope (FOH) network for the Foreign Exchange officers, which was an information-sharing Cross Domain solution.

He designed and oversaw the creation of the Office of Overseas Buildings (OBO) Projnet (C) classified and Projnet (U) unclassified solution to securely pass US Embassy blueprints and drawings to and from US government contractors.

Mr. Smith designed, developed, installed, and managed the lifesaving Blue Force tracker program and system for more than 20 different US Embassies worldwide.

Mr. Smith’s technical expertise in cyber, network, information assurance, information technology, physical personnel, and communications security were key in his success as the Senior Technical Advisor to the Director of Security Infrastructure, Diplomatic Security, DoS. Mr. Smith’s vast experience allows him to find solutions to government problems.

For the past 13 years, Mr. Smith has been working as a Corporate Executive Director and a Program Manager and has been directly managing government contracts, which gives him over 23 years managing government contracts. The contracts he has managed include the Department of the Army, Department of State, Department of Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, the Pentagon Special Security Office, two CI Technical Surveillance Countermeasures contracts, the Intelligence and Security Command Special Security Office, the Iraq and Afghanistan contract for the DOD Language Interpretation and Translation Enterprise (DLITE) contract, the Department of State Iraq Senior linguist and cultural advisor support to the US Embassy senior leadership.

In addition to having been a very successful senior Program Manager, his expertise includes 23 years holding various positions dual-hatted as a Corporate Executive Director reporting to corporate presidents and CEOs for large and small businesses. In these roles, he managed and was directly responsible for overseeing numerous contracts, hiring, positive and negative counseling, and in certain cases, removing personnel from contracts. Managerial experience includes management of contracts, personnel, equipment, procurement, financial reporting, quality control/assurance, and operations management.

This experience includes ODCs reports tracking and accountability of equipment procurement and deployment. He was also responsible for creating, tracking, and submitting all mandatory monthly, weekly, and annual reports reporting all financial aspects of every contract to include labor, vehicle rental, travel, per diem, and other contract requirements. On all contracts, he developed and ensured strict quality control plans and quality assurance programs and managed and directed operational needs and requirements.

Operational experience includes strategic overt and clandestine operations, tactical counterintelligence operations, intelligence analysis, risk management, security support to US Embassy operations, and US military operations. This includes in-depth knowledge of security and intelligence policy and procedural directives. Technical experience includes secure computing knowledge ranging from technical COMSEC integration to policy and procedural security; administration of computer systems, both standalone and server administration; computer hardware and software configuration; computer network designing, building, and administration; certification and accreditation and network process engineering and technical documentation.