Shellum, Brian G.

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Shellum, Brian G.

PERSONAL:

Married; children: two. Education: Graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point; Campbell University, M.S.; studied at the University of Bonn, Germany. Hobbies and other interests: "Fly-fishing, skiing, woodcarving, and listening to Garrison Keillor on the radio to remind him of his Minnesota roots."

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

U.S. Army until retirement in 1994; Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), historian, 1994-2006; Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, senior threat analyst, 1994—. Military service: Served in the U.S. Army as an armor officer and West European foreign area specialist, including as army attaché in Bonn, Germany, for eleven years; Gulf War service on the staff of the Second Brigade, 1st Armored Division; senior intelligence analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Bronze Star medal, Order of St. George.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Deane J. Allen) At the Creation, 1961-1965: Origination Documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency, DIA History Office (Washington, DC), 2002.

Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 2006.

Also the author of Defense Intelligence Support in the Gulf War: A Chronology, 1997, and Development of Defense Human Intelligence, 2003, both for the DIA.

SIDELIGHTS:

Brian G. Shellum began his career as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and followed up as an armor officer in the United States Army, where he was a foreign area specialist on Western Europe until his retirement in 1994. He also holds a master's degree from Campbell University. During his time in the service, Shellum spent a tour of duty working as an attaché in Bonn, Germany, ultimately living, working, and studying there for eleven years, taking courses at the University of Bonn and becoming fluent in the German language. He spent another tour as part of the Second Brigade, 1st Armored Division during the Gulf War and also served at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as a senior intelligence analyst. He earned a number of military awards and decorations during his time in the service, including a Bronze Star medal and the Order of St. George.

Following his retirement from the army, Shellum worked for the DIA as a historian until 2006. He has also been employed as a senior threat analyst for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. He has written a number of pamphlets and reports for the agency, as well as serving as editor of At the Creation, 1961-1965: Origination Documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency, with Deane J. Allen, and as the author of Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point. Black Cadet in a White Bastion tells the history of Charles Young, notable as only the third African American to have graduated from West Point, Shellum's own alma mater. Young is of particular interest because he was the only African American West Point graduate of the nineteenth century to go on to have a successful and lengthy military career, one that spanned the years 1889 to 1922. He not only fought the odds of his race but also showed prodigious luck over the course of his military experiences. As his family could never afford to send him to college, Young investigated opportunities for a free education and took the entrance exam for West Point. Although he placed second in the academic competition, the first-place candidate resigned, and Young was able to take the single spot available for his district. He graduated and served his country, attaining the rank of colonel and dying in the course of duty. Shellum chronicles a career and period of time in African American history that receives little attention. Frieda Murray, in a review for Booklist, commented that "Shellum has put his keyboard to good use." Jennifer R. Green, writing for the Journal of Southern History, noted that "while interestingly reclaiming an African American past, broadening the text beyond Young's and his associates' biographies would have increased the analytical content of the work as a whole."