David Mark Bennett
“Dave”

Major Dave Bennett: Senior LNO, Prime Minister's Situation Room: August 18, 2005
Major Dave Bennett: Senior LNO, Prime Minister's Situation Room - IRAQ: August 18, 2005

Dave Bennett is an active duty Army Lieutenant Colonel and native of Moses Lake, Washington. He enlisted in the US Army in 1982 to become a Russian interrogator/voice interceptor. Following advanced individual training (AIT) at the Defense Language Institute, he attended the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School (USMA) and graduated from USMA at West Point, NY in 1988. His traveling in the military has included visits and tours of duty to Afghanistan, Africa, Alaska, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Hawaii, Kuwait, Iraq, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Texas, and Western Europe.

Dave was deployed to Southwest Asia under Operation Desert Storm with the 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery (PATRIOT) from 1991-1992, to Central Asia as a Russian-speaking Foreign Area Officer (FAO) under Operation Enduring Freedom from 2002-2003, and to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005-2006. Holding a Master’s degree from the University of Washington in Slavic Linguistics, Dave speaks German, Russian, and some Spanish. He currently works at the Pentagon on the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a Politico-Military Affairs Planner, responsible for Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey. From June 2009 to June 2010 Dave was deployed from the Joint Staff to Kabul, Afghanistan. His next tour of duty will be as Chief of Military Cooperation, US Embassy Astana, Kazakhstan.

Dave is the divorced and remarried father of four boys – Christopher (born in 1990), Eric (1991), Alex (1994), and Ryan (1996). In October of 2005, Evgenia Aleksandrovna Ilyushenko and Dave married in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. They spent two years in Atlanta Georgia, where Zhenya gave birth to Élodie Anastasia in August 2007.

Index of Writings

Dave and son Chris the West Point Cadet, Oct 2008
Dave and son Chris, the West Point Cadet, Oct 2008Zhenya, Élodie and Dave at West Point, Oct 2008
Zhenya, Élodie and Dave at West Point, Oct 2008

Dave and Evgenia – that special day in October 2005
Dave and Evgenia
That special day in October 2005Dave and his sons, Christopher, Eric, Alex, and Ryan
Dave and his sons
Christopher, Eric, Alex, and Ryan