Profile

Jeff Emanuel served in the U.S. Air Force from 1999-2004 as a Special Operations Tactical Air Controller, working as a member of conventional and Joint Special Operations units as a communications expert and precision airstrike controller. His assignments included a year in Korea and combat duty in Iraq, where he was a member of the special operations task force responsible for the rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, among other missions.

He later returned to Iraq as an embedded reporter, working on the front lines in Baghdad, Salman Pak, Samarra, Tal Afar, Balad, Kirkuk, and elsewhere, with units from the 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions, the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Special Forces Group, and several others. His reporting from the front, which has been published in several prestigious newspapers and magazines, included the exclusive cover story of the November 2007 issue of The American Spectator, and earned him the distinct honor of being compared to legendary World War II reporter Ernie Pyle by talk radio icon Paul Harvey, as well as consideration for several journalism awards.

After his tour in the military ended in 2004, Jeff returned to school at the University of Georgia, where he earned a degree in Classics (with an emphasis on Classical Archaeology) and served as a leadership fellow with the University’s Center for International Trade and Security, researching nuclear proliferation and radiological terrorism and editing texts, including Radiological Terrorism and the Search for Resiliency, a book for which he served as chief editor. He is currently a Contributor to MESHNet, a members-only forum for discussion of U.S. Strategy in Middle Eastern affairs that falls under the purview of the Institute for Strategic Studies’ Middle East Strategy at Harvard (MESH) project.

The grandson of missionaries who served in post-WWII Japan, Jeff has been recognized by the military for excellence, as well as by several communities (both foreign and domestic) for his volunteer service, which has included establishing a program to teach English to orphaned children in rural South Korea, and being trained to serve as an officer of the Juvenile Court representing underprivileged children in abuse, neglect, and custody cases in Georgia. He has also been the recipient of Rotary Club awards for local and international community service.

While at the University of Georgia, Jeff was repeatedly recognized for excellence in the areas of citizenship and scholarship, including being named the University of Georgia’s “Pillar of the Community” in 2005, while also competing as a member of the University’s Triathlon and Water Polo teams. He also holds a degree in Information Systems Technology (2002).

A professional writer and editor, Jeff is a regular contributor to the Weekly Standard (online), The American Spectator, and Human Events newspaper, and his columns have appeared in such publications as the Washington Times, the American Thinker, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal, the Jerusalem Post, and National Review Online, as well as several others. In addition, he is a health care policy consultant and publication editor for a free-market think tank based in Chicago, IL.

A member of the Internet-based “New Media Revolution,” Jeff is President of Lighthouse Strategies and Consulting, Inc., a New Media consulting firm that builds Web sites and develops and implements Online Strategies for businesses, and political campaigns, and nonprofits.

He is a Director Emeritus of RedState.com, the online community recognized for being the “right-leaning weblog most-read on Capitol Hill.” He is also an administrator and contributing editor for the state of Georgia’s leading bipartisan political weblog, Peach Pundit, and a contributor to Politico’s “daily debate with policymakers and opinion shapers” blog, The Arena. In addition, he has been a columnist, weblogger, and contributing editor for news and opinion site Townhall.com.

Jeff is a regular contributor to Pajamas Media’s PJTV, and he has been a featured guest on several national and major market television and radio programs, including The O’Reilly Factor, the Laura Ingraham Show, and those hosted by Mike Gallagher, Janet Parshall, George Putnam, Frank Pastore, Melanie Morgan, and many more.

He has also been a nominee for Cosmopolitan magazine’s “Bachelor of the Year.”

Jeff currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his fiancée Katie and their adopted puppies, Emma and Eva, and Knightly.