Peter Spagnolo
Senior Instructor, Terrorism/Military
Mr. Spagnolo is a retiree of the 5th Special Forces Group. During his service, he spent a great deal of time in the Middle East, conducting real world operations in Kuwait, Kenya, Oman and the United Arab Emirates and a real world counterterrorism mission in Kuwait.

During his active duty, Peter had an extensive study of terrorism as it relates to the Middle East and, more importantly, the root causes of the discontent among many Middle Easterners that lead to terrorist acts. Mr. Spagnolo is a graduate of the 63-week Arabic Language course at the Defense Language Institute at Presidio of Monterey, California. In the early 1980’s, he helped write the post Viet Nam Doctrine for Strategic Reconnaissance for the United States Army.

During Mr. Spagnolo’s more than 20 years of Military Service, he operated in Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Asian Subcontinent and throughout the Middle East. He served as a Drill Instructor at the US Army Military Police Center prior to joining Special Forces.

After retirement from the US Army, Mr. Spagnolo served for almost six years as a Deputy for the Payette County (Idaho) Sheriff’s Office before joining GTI. He holds an Intermediate Certification through Idaho POST.

Peter is a Fellow of the Academy of Political Science (APS), a prestigious organization that promotes objective, scholarly analyses of domestic and foreign policy issues. He is published in "The Journal of Counterterrorism," in "Homeland Security: Protecting America’s Targets and Countering Terrorism" and "Insurgency in the 21st Century" -- both of which are scholarly anthologies compiled by The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. He conducts many speaking engagements on terrorism and security-related subjects. He teaches classes on Terrorism Awareness, Terrorism Mindset and other terrorism and terrorist-related subjects to military and law enforcement professionals at federal, state and local levels.

He is a 2005 Cum Laude graduate with a Master of Arts Degree in Diplomacy from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont and is currently enrolled in the International Development PhD Program at University of Southern Mississippi -- a challenging four-year doctorate program that requires intensive research overseen by professors who specialize in various subfields of political science. Mr. Spagnolo's ambitions are to ensure homeland safety and the development of the Middle East while providing the highest level of law enforcement and military training instruction to GTI students.

Formal Training

• Idaho POST Basic Patrol Course
• Idaho POST Basic Investigator’s Course
• Crime & Death Scene Investigator’s Course
• Long Range Marksmanship Course
• Arabic Language Course
• Special Forces Operations and Intelligence Course
• Special Forces Qualification Course
• Instructor Training Course
• Drill Sergeant Qualification Course
• Primary, Basic and Advanced Noncommissioned Officers Academies
• Long Range Marksmanship Course

• International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals
• The Academy of Political Science
• Association of Former Intelligence Officers