Chris Robishaw II (Landmine Removal in Ukraine, Human Performance and Drone Warfare) - Episode 1181

Lieutenant Colonel Chris “Robie” Robishaw is a 33-year veteran of the U.S. Army . He recently retired and started his own consulting firm, Odyssey Special Operations Consulting, where he specializes in support to special operations exercises, military advisory roles in the film industry, and support to benevolent organizations around the world. His career began with an age waiver signed by his parents, at the age of 17 when he joined the United States Army Reserve whilst a Junior in High School. He spent three years in Reserve units in Ohio and Maine as a combat medic. After watching the invasion of Panama in 1989 on television, he decided to postpone his collegiate and ROTC endeavors and he reclassified to the Infantry by joining the Regular Army with an initial assignment to the 82d Airborne Division.

He spent the next 6 years as a paratrooper where he served in every single position in a Rifle Platoon. While in the 82nd he rose from Private to Staff Seargent and eventually served as a Platoon Sergeant. His time in the 82nd was also marked as the top Battalion Squad Leader for two consecutive years. The 82nd took Robie to his first combat assignment for the entirety of Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Jungle Expert training in Panama, and Hurricane Andrew Relief in southern Florida. Immediately following the Gulf War, he earned the Expert Infantryman’s Badge, attended the Ranger Course, became a Jumpmaster, was inducted into the prestigious Audie Murphy Club, and was selected for Special Forces. He then attended the Army’s Officer Candidate School, finishing at the top of his class.

He took his 2nd Lieutenant commission to the 101st Airborne Division where he saw additional service in the Infantry as a Rifle and a Reconnaissance Platoon Leader. He performed peace keeping operations in Haiti and was partnered in the winning 2-person team of the annual Best Ranger Competition in 1997. After graduating college with a B.S. in Parks and Recreation and subsequently being promoted to Captain, he returned to Special Forces in 2003 and has served the Regiment until his retirement in 2020. Robie was regionally assigned to the 1st Battalion of the famed 10th Special Forces group in Stuttgart, Germany. His Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha was dispatched to several partnership training missions in Europe and numerous operations in the Balkans and North Africa.

He then spent a very kinetic and arduous year in East Baghdad where he led a small advisory team partnered to a failing Iraqi mechanized battalion in 2006-2007. This was followed by his first of two assignments to the SOCOM HQ as an exercise planner. Years later, he returned to Stuttgart, Germany and had the honor of leading his Special Forces Company to Afghanistan where he served as a Joint NATO Special Operations Task Force and Task Group Commander on two occasions in Eastern Afghanistan from 2010-2012. The following four years were spent traveling the globe as a SOCOM exercise planner. His last assignment involved serving as the Army’s Special Operations Command as the liaison officer and instructor at the Army Aviation Center of Excellence where he focused on Special Operations and Conventional Force integration and interoperability.

Special Forces provided Robie opportunities to gain varying levels of expertise in special reconnaissance, rapport establishment, direct action, controlling close air support, counter-insurgency, Unconventional Warfare, surveillance and tracking, doctrine writing, sniper employment, advance trauma life support, mountaineering, arctic/high altitude warfare, negotiating, demolition, exercise planning, indigenous military operations, and several European languages.

Since retirement, he has committed himself to volunteer humanitarian missions including the Kabul Airport rescues and activities in Ukraine.