20 Answers: Mike McConnell

Hometown: Greenville, SC
Born: July 26, 1943
High School: Wade Hampton
Notable: Attended North Greenville Junior College before graduating from Furman, George Washington University, and from the National Defense University and National Defense Intelligence College

1. When I tell people that I’m from Greenville, they say, which one? (There is a “Greenville” in forty-eight states of the Union.) I say the largest one, Greenville, South Carolina.

2. The Furman experience of broad-based, liberal arts education provided the foundation to think for myself in challenging and demanding situations, an understanding of the world and America’s place in it, and ways to think through and successfully address problems.

3. Loss of the textile industry as a global leader is the biggest difference between how Greenville is now and how Greenville was then.

4. I had my first intelligence assignment as a Navy lieutenant working on the chief-of-naval-operations staff in the Pentagon in 1971. Our responsibility was to oversee safety of U.S. submarine operations worldwide and to track and understand submarine operations of foreign countries, especially the Soviet Union.

5. I have said, “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” teasingly when someone was asking a personal question.

6. I met my wife Terry when she was working on Capitol Hill for a state association.

7. I served as a professional intelligence officer in the Navy for over 25 years during the Cold War when we were facing the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The Navy, as the maritime service, was frequently called upon to react to emerging crisis events around the world, which taught me how to understand and use all U.S. intelligence sensors and methods. It is this understanding of U.S. intelligence systems and experience in real-world operations that allowed me to contribute as the director of national intelligence (DNI).

8. When I met Barack Obama, I thought, I have met a very smart, very impressive man who is confident, engaging, thinks at the strategic level, and is very quick in how he processes and reacts to information.

9. The working space for the West Wing is so small. Every inch is used by someone and is often in contention for reassignment. The president’s chief of staff serves as the “mayor of the West Wing” to adjudicate space.

10. I arranged for my granddaughters to see the Jonas Brothers at the White House.

11. After serving in the Navy for almost thirty years, I was enjoying a profitable business-consulting practice for a respectable firm. But there was only one job for which I would return to government service and that was as director of national intelligence. My focus in the DNI position was to ensure we were on firm footing as an intelligence community.

12. The last time I spent time in person with George W. Bush was in the Oval Office with my wife. President Bush presented me with National Security Medal for my service as director of national intelligence.

13. It was challenging to rise above the political rhetoric to do the right thing for the country when the intelligence community was accused, often for political reasons, of wrong-doing. We had, and the intelligence community has, many successes, but those stories go untold to protect sources and methods to ensure future success. When there is one transgression, it is all that is repeated in the press and often on the Hill.

14. My wife would say that I work too much.

15. I enjoy music and making CDs of my favorite tunes to give as presents.

16. Some of my favorite memories are of family and teenage outings on picnics or hikes in the Blue Ridge mountains between Greenville and Asheville.

17. When my job got overly stressful, I’d take my wife to dinner.

18. The original Star Wars is my favorite movie.

19. My biggest concern beyond North Korea, Iran, and Iraq is the possibility of a radical extremist or terrorist group obtaining and using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) such as a biological weapon, or less likely, a nuclear device. It has been assessed that there is greater than 50% likelihood that a WMD event will occur somewhere in the world in the next five years. If and when such an event occurs, it will change the course of events for the globe.

20. Shrimp ’n’ grits over pimiento cheese sandwiches