As our fifth recipient of the George E Smith Distinguished Alumni Award, it is a pleasure to present a brother with a distinguished military career.
Colonel James D. Allshouse, a 1976 OSU grad, flew in several roles including air-to-ground, air superiority, nuclear defense, and defense suppression. The majority of his time was in the distinguished F-4G Wild Weasel with extensive experience in electronic warfare and defense suppression. In this unit, during the first Iraq invasion, aircraft was equipped with radar seeking equipment designed to take out the enemy’s air defense system. In essence, the Wild Weasel’s task was to bait the enemy anti aircraft defenses into targeting them with their radar, allowing the Weasel to know where the enemy’s radar was, thus allowing the Weasel or their teammates to target the radar for destruction. In effect, the Weasels set themselves up as targets and had to elude the enemy weapons systems in order to seek out the weapon’s system.
In 1999, Colonel Allshouse became Commander of Air Force ROTC and Professor of Air Science at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. As commander, he and a cadre of six officers and NCOs were responsible for mentoring and educating more than 150 AFROTC cadets that make up the 890th Cadet Wing.
His staff assignments included two tours in foreign military sales where he was responsible for all $21 billion in sales and support to the Mideast and Africa.
In his present position at Battelle Memorial Institute, he serves as a Program Manager within the Battelle Special Programs Market Sector, responsible for providing international technology assessments to U.S. Government clients.
In addition to his degree from OSU in Russian history, Colonel Allshouse has a Master of Arts in Management and Human Relations and a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy. He is married to Milisa K Rizer, a medical doctor with Battelle Memorial, and has a daughter Kaylin, currently a junior in high school.
Please welcome our 2013 George E Smith Distinguished Alumni …..Colonel James D. Allshouse