Bruce 'Buzz' Graler

Experience

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  United States Southern Command

  Jun 2007 - Jun 2010

  Director, Strategic Plans and Future Operations

  - Led the Future Operations and Contingency Plans Divisions responsible for planning Disaster Relief response, Exercises, Maritime Future Ops, Counter Drug/Counter Narco-Terrorism and emerging crises as well as nine Contingency Plans and select annexes of the SOUTHCOM Theater Campaign Plan. Frequently led Joint Planning Groups of 50+ military and civilian members and sourced across all SOUTHCOM directorates, service components and the inter-agency. Skillfully led this diverse group through Crisis Action Planning for instability in Bolivia and Haiti resulting in well thought-out, executable plans. Effective leader that can lead a team of military and inter-agency civilians toward mission success. Developed cooperative relationships with component staffs, JTF staffs, execution forces, relevant government and NGO agencies, and multi-national staffs.- Acknowledged expert in the Joint Operational Planning Process. Led numerous Joint Planning Groups through the entire planning process resulting in the execution of multiple missions that supported the Combatant Commander’s strategic objectives and endstate. Mastery of the JOPP resulted in more efficient JPGs producing more effective and meaningful products that facilitated the Combatant Commander’s decisions. Show less

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  United States Marine Corps

  Jul 2010 - Jan 2018

  - Led the Plans and Programs Directorate consisting of the Theater Security Cooperation, Future Plans, Global Force Management, Exercise and Assessments Branches consisting of military and civilian personnel. Set priorities and delegated work based on difficulty of tasks and the capabilities of personnel. - Ensured the synchronization and integration of all MARFORSOUTH plans with national strategy, USSOUTHCOM strategy and plans as well as USMC strategy and plans. - Conducted detailed reviews of operational, contingency, and crisis response plans and advised the Commander, Marine Corps Forces South on the employment of Marine Corps Forces.- Provided direct oversight to the planning and execution of over 200 theater security cooperation events in 29 countries in the SOUTHCOM Area of Responsibility. Show less - Provided leadership, direction and guidance to the 17 Marines assigned as advisors to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Presidential Guard Mechanized Brigade's six battalions spread across five locations throughout the UAE. Led a diverse team of American, French, Emirati, Algerian, and Jordanian military and civilian personnel toward a common goal of building capacity of the UAE Presidential Guard.- Advised the Commanding General, Khalifa Bin Zayed II Brigade, UAE Presidential Guard, in training, management, and tactical/operational employment of brigade forces. Observed, documented and analyzed the performance and progress of the Brigade's four Mechanized Infantry Battalions, Tank Battalion, Brigade Support Battalion, Anti-tank Company and Engineer Company then developed and implemented a pre-deployment training program focused on Mission Essential Tasks to increase proficiency and training effectiveness in order to prepare the brigade to deploy forces.- Planned, coordinated, supervised, and led the transfer of 20 Emirati Tanks and Infantry Fighting Vehicles ($88,677,300 worth of sensitive UAE military equipment) to the U.S. and established an Emirati military facility aboard a U.S. military base—the first of its kind in history and of critical importance to the U.S. - UAE security partnership. - Twice deployed a company-sized unit from UAE to Twentynine Palms, CA for four weeks of training in individual skills through mechanized company task force operations. Oversaw the development of training objectives, exercise support requirements and funding to ensure a successful deployment and exercise. Established a gunnery program throughout the brigade for BMP-3s and LeClerc tanks which included a Gunnery Skills Test prior to live-fire and continually educated the brigade and battalion staffs on the use and importance of Surface Danger Zones when conducting live-fire operations. Show less - Supervised the $22.2 million, 35-day, full spectrum Enhanced Mojave Viper Exercise (EMV) that is the Marine Corps largest pre-deployment training event and Service-level formal assessment for battalion and squadron sized units deploying to Afghanistan. Synchronized, integrated and provided training oversight of the exercise training program for simultaneous training of two reinforced Infantry Battalions, an Artillery Battalion, a Combat Logistics Battalion, four flying squadrons and a Marine Wing Support Squadron. Supervised and coordinated the transition from EMV to the Marine Corps new combined arms exercise named Integrated Training Exercise (ITX). Led and coordinated multiple working groups responsible for updating and re-writing the EMV curriculum to reflect the new ITX combined arms program. Advised Lieutenant Colonel Battalion and Squadron Commanders and their staffs on training plan development in order to exploit opportunities and improve performance.- Analyzed emerging enemy and friendly tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and identified training objectives and events that required adaptation, then coordinated program management efforts of subject matter experts for exercise support, scenario development, role-player coordination, and integration of live and non-live fire events. Established and led a Counter-IED working group; identified current enemy and friendly TTPs and ensured the exercise IED environment replicated the current environment in Afghanistan. Led internal after-action reviews with the staff and developed systemic trends reports in order to improve training. Show less

  • Infantry Officer

    Aug 1991 - Jan 2018

  • Director, Plans and Programs (G-5), United States Marine Corps Forces, South

    Jul 2014 - Dec 2017

  • Senior Advisor, Khalifa Bin Zayed II Brigade, Presidential Guard

    Jun 2013 - Jun 2014

  • Director Of Operations, Tactical Training Exercise Control Group

    Jul 2010 - Jun 2013
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  Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.

  Dec 2017 - Aug 2019

  Interagency Coordination and Integration Planner

  - Responsible for coordinating, facilitating the integration of the interagency personnel into the military planning process. - Coordinate non-DoD agency participation in training and exercises as well as "real-world" mission requirements. - Coordinate and synchronize command-wide interagency efforts in theater security planning, deliberate planning, crisis planning, crisis response, transition, and post-crisis reconstruction activities. - Responsible for coordinating and facilitating the integration of interagency partners into all USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility (AOR) planning functions- Provide technical support and advice concerning current and future civilian agency capabilities, limitations, and approaches. Show less

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  US Army

  Aug 2019 - Jan 2024

  Strategic Planner, US Army North (5th Army)

  - Provides extensive knowledge, experience, and understanding of operations and national security processes to create clear and simple contingency and special plans.- Conducts research incorporating expert knowledge from academia, business and government resources to organize and design solutions to complex, unstructured problems. - Uses qualitative and/or quantitative methods and develops strategies for the assessment and improvement of command and staff effectiveness or the improvement of complex management processes and systems.- During crises, uses experience in military history, theory, and doctrine to develop options for military operations in a time constrained, complex, ambiguous environment and presents those options to the Commander USARNORTH.- Makes use of cross-functional skills to develop, assign, and approve goals and objectives for the team and manages the overall work of peers and superiors to enhance achievement of goals and objectives.- Plans and assigns work to be accomplished by the team based on priorities, area of expertise, difficulty of assignment, and capabilities of employees. Show less

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  GearSwap.Shop

  Jan 2023 - now

  • Senior Technical Advisor

    May 2023 - now

  • Technical Advisor

    Jan 2023 - May 2023
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  Mission and Installation Contracting Command

  Feb 2024 - now

  Strategic Plans & Operations Specialist