NIF Taylor Award Presented at FITC to SSGT Ryan Bonham 

SSGT Ryan M. Bonham, USMC, received the Naval Intelligence Foundation’s Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award for Excellence in Intelligence Instruction at the Fleet Intelligence Training Center (FITC) in San Diego on 26 Jun 09. 

FITC Commanding Officer CAPT (S) Mark Jarek, USN, and NIF representative CDR Geno Spatafore, USN (Ret.), recognized SSGT Bonham for his demonstrated training expertise and lasting contribution to his students, the Center for Naval Intelligence, and Naval & Marine Corps Intelligence. 

SSGT Bonham serves as the primary instructor for FITC’s Expeditionary Warfare Intelligence Course (EWIC) and recently led an effort to standardize its instruction at Fleet concentration areas.  In that regard, he created and then expanded a Mobile Training Team (MTT) to deliver the EWIC at NMITC, the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field and at other sites worldwide, as required.  SSGT Bonham also instructs in the International Maritime Intelligence Course and the Naval Intelligence Officer’s Basic Course-Reserve.  In the latter role, he expertly prepared deploying Reservists in principles regarding Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (IPB).

SSGT Bonham’s previous assignments include duty with the 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division; and the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 1st Marine Regiment.  He and his wife Amber are expecting their first child (a son) in Sep 09.

His name will join FITC’s previous awardees on a plaque that is on permanent display in Taylor Hall, situated immediately above a case containing Vice Admiral Taylor’s uniform, awards, and personal items.  Of note, SSGT Bonham is only the second Marine to receive this award, and is the most junior person to receive the award in its 18-year history (the first recipient was then-LCDR Susan Chiaravalle in 1990). 

This is a banner year for intelligence professional in the Corps:  both the 2009 NMITC and FITC recipients are Marines, with GYSGT Raymond Boyce receiving the East Coast Taylor award for excellence.

NIF presented SSGT Bonham with the now-traditional brass “spy glass,” a commemorative wall plaque, and a five-year membership in Naval Intelligence Professionals.