Veteran. Author. Defense and National Security Analyst.
Wes J. Bryant is a retired master sergeant and former special operations joint terminal attack controller (JTAC) in the elite special warfare branch of the US Air Force. He is coauthor of the book Hunting the Caliphate: America’s War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell, a first-person account of the war against ISIS written alongside the former ground force commander of Iraq, Major General Dana J.H. Pittard. In 2014, he was a key member of the special operations crisis response force sent to safeguard Baghdad against the threat of ISIS, and established the first strike cells to take down the Caliphate. As a senior targeting professional, he led three separate strike cells combatting ISIS and other terrorist entities across Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Wes is now a defense and national security analyst with focus on foreign policy, counterterrorism and extremism, strike and joint targeting operations, and civilian harm mitigation.
Wes was a lead member of a special Senate task force conducting analysis and assessment of US, allied, and adversary practices and conduct in warfare, targeting operations, and civilian harm mitigation where he directly advised Congress toward national security policy reform. Most recently, he was a senior analyst and advisor on precision warfare and civilian harm mitigation at the Pentagon’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, where he led as the first-ever Branch Chief of Civilian Harm Assessments.
Wes has provided expert commentary in appearances on CNN, CBS, BBC, PBS, and others, and analysis for Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Fox, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Foreign Policy, and more. He has presented at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, the U.S. Army War College, Duke School of Law Center for Law, Ethics, and National Security, Northeastern University School of Business, and University of Massachusetts Amherst International Relations.
Wes holds a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from the University of Maryland, a Master of Professional Studies in Publishing through George Washington University, and an MBA with focus in Technology and Innovation through George Washington University.
You can find him on Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and even TikTok @wesjbryant and visit his site at wesjbryant.com.
“I’ve been a lifelong philosopher, writer, and artist of many colors. From storytelling, to poetry, to singer-songwriting, to training in the traditional martial arts — I find wisdom and refuge in them all. In my work, I blend perspectives from a life of both extreme adversity and great opportunity. From a troubled upbringing, that pushed me to leave everything behind for the military, later finding myself thick in the global war on terror and struggling with trauma born out of combat, to the healing experience of living in South Korea and training under a Kung Fu Grandmaster who had grown up up in Japanese-occupied North Korea and was a guerrilla fighter against the Chinese Communists, to building an amazing and beautiful family through it all — who taught me my most valuable lessons. I strive to make tapestries rooted in the heart, mind, and soul…. ”