Chuck Spinney

Franklin (Chuck) Spinney retired from the Defense Department in 2003 after a military-civilian career spanning 33 years. The latter 26 of those years were as a staff analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During this period, he appeared as a witness in many congressional hearings before the Budget, Armed Services, Defense Appropriations and Government Affairs or Reform and Oversight committees of the U.S. House and Senate. He is author of Defense Facts of Life: The Plans/Reality Mismatch (1985). His op-eds and essays have appeared in the TheWall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Challenge, CounterPunch, Proceedings Magazine of the U.S Naval Institute and the Marine Corps Gazette, among other places. His critical plans/reality analysis of the Reagan defense program landed him on the cover of Time Magazine (March 7, 1983). In 2003, his hour long "exit interview" with Bill Moyers on the PBS show NOW won an Emmy Award for being the best news magazine show of 2003. After retiring, Chuck and his wife moved aboard a 12 meter sailboat, crossed the Atlantic in 2005, and since then they have been sailing and living in Mediterranean Sea. Many of Chuck’s reports and essays can be found on his website