Vaughn L Ward

Vaughn Ward currently serving on Active Duty in Washington, DC.

Personal Background

Vaughn was born in Twin Falls, Idaho and raised in Twin Falls and Jerome, Idaho graduating from Jerome High School in 1987. He worked for U.S. Senator Dirk Kempthorne following graduation from Boise State University in 1992. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps on 17 March 1995. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland. He is married and has a daughter, Avé.

Early Life

Vaughn spent most of his formative years on his family's farm in Shoshone, Idaho. His grandfather, William Tews, ran a farming and ranching operation in Lincoln and Blaine Counties. While attending Jerome High School, Vaughn was a varsity football athlete and a 1987 McDonalds All-Star. In his senior year of high school, the Jerome Tiger football team won the Idaho State A-2 Football Championship. In the fall of 1988, Vaughn walked-on to the Boise State Broncos football team and played as a red-shirt freshman. He received a B.S. in Political Science from Boise State University.

U.S. Senate

Upon graduation from College in 1992, Vaughn volunteered for the U.S. Senate campaign of Dirk Kempthorne. After winning the seat, Senator-elect Kempthorne offered Vaughn a job as a Legislative Aide in Washington, DC. Vaughn worked on commerce, defense, energy, transportation and veteran issues for Idaho. On behalf of the Senator, he followed legislation through the committee and voting processes, wrote floor speeches, and met with government officials, business leaders and constituents from the State of Idaho. During his time in the Senate, Vaughn worked on a myriad of funding and legislative issues including: expanding the scope of the mission at the Department of Energy Lab in Idaho, Idaho National Laboratory (INL); the fight against the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and in particular the establishment of the World Trade Organization; and he worked on the establishment of an environmentally efficacious training range in Owyhee County for use by the Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.

Military career

Vaughn entered the Marine Corps in January 1995 and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on 17 March 1995. After completing a year of infantry training in Quantico, VA, Lieutenant Ward led Marines around the world to include Liberia, Africa in 1996 during Operation Assured Response, and in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba during Operation Marathon and unit deployments to California, Japan and Korea. Lieutenant Ward was transferred to Capitol Hill in 1998 and served as a military Fellow in the United States Senate where he worked on variety of budgetary and national security policy issues related to the FY99 Defense Authorization Bill. From 1999-2000, Captain Ward worked for the Commandant of the Marine Corps coordinating and executing projects such as the semi-annual week long visit from the NATO Defense College (NDC), which was composed of over a hundred senior military officers from every NATO country. While working on his Masters in Business Administration, Vaughn re-entered active duty in late 2001 and served a year at Marine Barracks 8th & I in Washington, DC where he managed logistics and VIP protocol issues for the base. In September 2007, Major Ward re-entered active duty serving a short tour in the U.S. Marine Corps' Office of Legislative Affairs where he worked in the Corps' offices in the U.S. Senate.

Central Intelligence Agency

Vaughn joined the CIA where he was trained as an Operations Officer. Vaughn worked in the Directorate of Operations and served in the Middle East, Africa, and Washington, DC. He worked closely with senior government officials from the U.S. and foreign countries conducting covert operations to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Vaughn resigned from the CIA in May 2007.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

In January 2006, Vaughn took a leave of absence from the CIA and volunteered to serve on active duty. Vaughn assumed command of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion 25th Marines. Major Ward led his men through a combat tour in Al-Fallujah, Al-Anbar Province, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. For his actions, Major Ward was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V", the Global War on Terror Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

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