21 Facts About John Poindexter

John Marlan Poindexter was born on August 12,1936 and is a retired United States naval officer and Department of Defense official.

John Poindexter was Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Advisor during the Reagan administration.

John Poindexter is the father of NASA astronaut and US Navy Captain Alan G Poindexter.

John Poindexter received his undergraduate degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1958, where he graduated first in a class of 899.

John Poindexter's fellow graduates included astronaut Bruce McCandless II and Senator John McCain; previous National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane was a contemporary, graduating the following year.

John Poindexter was an executive officer and a chief engineer of destroyers.

John Poindexter launched the development of a distributed data management system to better manage training pipelines.

John Poindexter served in the Reagan administration as military assistant to the National Security Advisor from 1981 to 1983.

John Poindexter played a significant role in the Strategic Defense Initiative, Operation Urgent Fury, the Achille Lauro incident, Operation El Dorado Canyon, and the Reykjavik Summit with the Soviets.

Evidence revealed that John Poindexter was a leader in the organization of the transfer of the weapons to Iran and oversaw other people involved in the affair, such as Oliver North.

From 1988 to 1989, John Poindexter was senior scientist at Presearch, Inc.

John Poindexter designed and developed hardware and software for the prototype of a digital real-time imaging system to be used for physical security of high-value facilities.

From 1990 to 1996, John Poindexter was the chief designer and programmer for TP Systems, Inc.

From 1993 to 1996, John Poindexter served as a consultant to Elkins Group, a business alliance with Electronic Data Systems, that developed the Elkins Interactive Training Network, a satellite-based training delivery system.

John Poindexter was the chairman of the Maritime Advisory Committee and a member of Elkins' board of directors.

From 1996 to 2002, John Poindexter served as senior vice president for SYNTEK Technologies, a small high-technology firm with contracts in domestic and international defense and commercial business.

John Poindexter gave high-level advice on management and directed information systems projects.

From January 2002 to August 2003, John Poindexter served as the Director of the DARPA Information Awareness Office.

John Poindexter faced criticism from the media and some politicians about the Policy Analysis Market project, a theoretical prediction market that would have rewarded participants for accurately predicting geopolitical trends in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Funding for the IAO was cut and John Poindexter retired from DARPA on August 12,2003.

John Poindexter's wife, Linda Poindexter, was an Episcopal priest for 13 years, but retired from the clergy when she converted to Catholicism.