Bert Mizusawa

Bert Kameaaloha “Bert” Mizusawa (born January 1957) is a major general in the United States Army Reserve. His awards include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, and 30 other awards as well as the Combat Infantryman, Master Parachutist, Ranger tab, Air Assault, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Badges. Mizusawa has also received the Humanitarian Service Medal, the Meritorious Civilian Service Award, and awards from two foreign governments.

Early life
Bert K. Mizusawa, a Japanese American, was born January 1957 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mizusawa is the second of six boys born to George and Theodora Mizusawa. Mizusawa's father met his mother in Europe (1953) while serving in the United States Army. Soon thereafter Mizusawa's father enlisted in the United States Air Force, moving the Mizusawa Family to Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia.

Education
Kecoughtan High School

In 1975 Mizusawa graduated from Kecoughtan High School in Hampton, Virginia. While in high school Mizusawa participated in varsity football, wrestling, and track.

West Point

In 1975 Mizusawa was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point. While at West Point he served in the Cadet Captain position as Assistant Operations Officer. On June 6, 1979 Mizusawa received his diploma from then Deputy Secretary of Defense, Charles W. Duncan, Jr., and graduated as the “number one man”—first in his class.

Harvard

In 1986 Mizusawa was accepted to Harvard Law School and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1989. He also received a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and was selected as a MacArthur Fellow, interning on the United States Attorneys’ Counterdrug Task Force.

Military
Graduating as top man on the list, Cadet Bert K. Mizusawa received his first choice in the USMA Corps of Cadets’ branch drawings—infantry.

Captain
As a Captain, Mizusawa — an Airborne Ranger, served as a paratrooper in Italy and commanded an elite infantry unit in the Korean DMZ.
 * Soviet Defector Incident
 * "On November 23, 1984, Captain Bert Mizusawa deployed from Camp Kitty Hawk (renamed Camp Bonifas in 1985) to the Korean Demilitarized Zone and commanded Joint Security Forces during the Soviet Defector Incident.  At approximately 1130 hours, during a communist-led tour, Soviet citizen Vasily Matusak suddenly dashed across the Military Demarcation Line into South Korea.  Thirty KPA soldiers pursued him, firing their weapons as they did so.  The KPA soldiers, who were pinned down by fire from the JSF's 4th Platoon on guard duty in Panmunjom, were quickly outmaneuvered and isolated in the area of the Sunken Garden, now the site of the Unification Monument.  In the 40-minute firefight that ensued, Corporal Jang Myong-Ki was killed, and Private First Class Michael A. Burgoyne was wounded. "

Colonel
As a Colonel, Mizusawa commanded the first team deployed to Afghanistan from the Joint Center for Operational Analysis, U.S. Joint Forces Command, and the Army Reserve Information Operations Command.
 * ARIOC
 * "The Army Reserve Information Operations Command headquartered in Adelphi, Maryland, supported Grecian Firebolt 2002 and its quest to test homeland-defense communications. Activated in October 2001, ARIOC is a U.S. Army Reserve asset charged to conduct information operations.  The organization, commanded by COL Bert Mizusawa, has five subordinate IO centers.  IOCs are located at Adelphi, Maryland; Fort Devens, Mass.; Oakdale, Pennsylvania; Dublin, California; and Fort Sam Houston, Texas.  Each IOC is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and is authorized 90 soldiers with the mission to conduct information-assurance and computer-network-defense operations. "

Brigadier General
Mizusawa was the Deputy Commanding General of the 335th Signal Command Theater. Prior to this Brig. Gen. Mizusawa served as the Deputy G3 of the U.S. Army Materiel Command; and as Deputy to the Commanding General, Multinational Corps-Iraq.

Major General
On August 2, 2011 Brig. Gen. Bert K. Mizusawa was promoted to major general and assumed the assignment of Deputy Director for Strategic Initiatives, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Government
From 1995 to 1998, Bert Mizusawa was appointed to the Professional Staff of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, where he assisted the Chairman with oversight of national defense. In 1996, he authored the GOP national security platform for the presidential campaign. In 1998, he was appointed as a three-star level Senior Executive in The Pentagon.

Mizusawa is currently serving as Deputy Director for Strategic Initiatives, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C..

Bert K. Mizusawa, Esq. is currently admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and the State of New York.

During the United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, 2010, Gen. Mizusawa unsuccessfully stood for the Republican nomination to stand in Virginia's 2nd congressional district. Though leading financially in the last two periods and was seen as a front runner, he ultimately came third in the primary behind eventual nominee Scott Rigell who went on to defeat incumbent Glenn Nye.

Articles

 * Decentralized information age training: key to U.S. antiterrorism efforts. (Homeland Security) — (Sep. 2003) Colonel Mizusawa discusses the application of decentralized information age training in coping with the homeland security threat posed by terrorism in the U.S. Colonel Mizusawa also discusses the advantage of the application for city and country leadership; challenges in the deployment process; and drawbacks of Internet-based applications.

Mentions

 * Dangerous Games: faces, incidents and casualties of the Cold War by James E. Wise, Jr., and Scott Baron. Naval Institute Press (2010): Annapolis, Maryland
 * The Reagan Diaries edited by Douglas Brinkley. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation (2007): New York, New York (Referencing Soviet Defector Incident in Korean DMZ)