NEWS

DIA Employee Completes Tour on National Security Staff

April 6, 2012

The Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Angela Holmes has quite a story - and photo - to include in her three year old daughter's memory book. That's because her daughter had her photograph taken with President Barack Obama during the departure ceremony at the conclusion of her mother's tour of duty with the White House's National Security Staff (NSS).

In February Holmes concluded a year-long rotational assignment as special assistant in the International Economic Affairs Office of the NSS. An integral part of the Executive Office of the President since 2009, members of NSS often meet in the Situation Room, with key players who include Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, advising and assisting the president on national security and foreign policy.

Holmes says that having work experience with DIA gave her the self-confidence to apply for the rotational assignment. She is a retired Army staff sergeant and has worked as an analyst at DIA for six years. Holmes indicated that it was her position with DIA that carried the most weight in the selection process for the rotational duty. "I was able to demonstrate a solid understanding of the intelligence community and military protocol. This is important because when we take these rotational assignments, we are serving as ambassadors of DIA. There were several people working at or visiting the White House who knew of DIA and because of this familiarity they expected a lot of me - they knew where I came from, and I had to be up and running."

Holmes says words were insufficient to describe how she felt about her selection for this assignment. "There's no bigger honor than to be asked to serve our country. I am pleased that I could represent DIA in this capacity, demonstrating every day what it is that we do," said Holmes, who performed a lot of executive assistant duties and interacted with several dignitaries who visited the White House.

"My experience with the NSS has definitely enhanced my abilities to effortlessly perform a myriad of duties on any given day here at DIA," she said. "The opportunity to support the United States of America and actually assist with what goes on to ensure our safety, allowed me to better understand how important our jobs are to America. This makes me want to ensure that my work at DIA is flawless and go over and beyond to support the executives to whom I am responsible."

Thinking back to her first day on the job, Holmes says it was "the most humbling experience I have ever had in my entire life. With her workstation located in the Eisenhower Building, Holmes was a short walk to assist with daily meetings at the White House and to delve into issues of economic funding, ensuring that monies were available to help people in times of federal crisis and disasters.

Holmes said she has definitely left a DIA footprint at NSS. "I made DIA proud. Seeing correspondence coming over from DIA, I was certainly able to connect the dots. I thought, 'wow, so this is why we do that'- cyberspace for example- putting all of these pieces together to ensure that America is safe."

"No one agency has a job in itself. It's truly a team mission and we're fighting for the same things. It makes me so proud to work in this capacity," concluded Holmes.

DIA is the nation’s premier all-source military intelligence organization.

It provides the nation’s most authoritative assessments of foreign military intentions and capabilities. The agency’s four core competencies -- human intelligence, all-source analysis, counterintelligence and technical intelligence -- enable military operations while also informing policy-makers at the defense and national levels.

DIA’s mission is unique and no other agency matches its military expertise across such a broad range of intelligence disciplines.