Lieutenant Colonel Christopher L. Budihas has served in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army for more than 23 years. He enlisted in the Marines in 1987 as a rifleman and rose to become a noncommissioned officer in Operations Desert Shield/Storm in the battles of Al-Burqan and Al-Wafra. Commissioned a second lieutenant in April 1994, he served with distinction as a force commander with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) and as an instructor at the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course until his discharge into the Marine Corps Reserve in June 2000.Six months later, he came on active duty in the U.S. Army, serving with the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry staff deployed in Bosnia and later in Iraq in combat as a company commander for 25 months. During the following year, he gained valuable experience in key positions on the division’s 2d Brigade Combat Team (BCT) staff. More recent tactical assignments included distinguished service with the 3d Infantry Division, initially as the division’s G3 (operations officer), then as S3 of the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor, and finally as executive officer of the division’s 2d BCT. In 2009, he became the aide-de-camp for the Commanding General of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Following his graduation from the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) in May 2011, he will report for duty as a squadron commander in 2d Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.LTC Budihas has earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Jacksonville University, and a Master’s Degree in Management and Leadership from Webster University and is completing a Master’s Degree in Military Arts and Science at SAMS. Other military schools include the Marine Corps’ Basic Training and Officer Candidate Schools, Officer Basic School, Infantry Officer Course, the Infantry Captain’s Career Course and Combined Arms and Service Staff School; and the Army’s Command and General Staff College, Airborne School, Air Assault School, Rappel Master’s Course, Ranger School, Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Course, Mountain Warfare and Cold Weather Survival School and Anti-Terrorist Tactics Course.