AFIO SF Chapter Presents: LTC Tomio Toyama on USSC in Israel and Palestine

Date: Friday, November 8, 2024

Time: 11:30am no host cocktails; 12 noon meeting start

Location: Basque Cultural Center, 599 Railroad Avenue, South San Francisco, CA 94080

Speaker: LTC Tomio “Tomes” Toyama, Army Reserve Foreign Area Officer (FAO)

Details: RSVP Required - Lunch included (please designate fish or meat)

Synopsis:In this event, LTC Toyama will discuss his most recent deployment to Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan while serving in the Office of the United States Security Coordinator (USSC). There, he served as the Deputy Director for Operations and lead Training Advisor to the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF). USSC is a unique US-led multinational organization staffed primarily by military personnel serving under State Department foreign relations authorities and funding. Tomes' tour began in May 2023 during a period of relative calm in the region but radically changed direction and intensity after the surprise Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7th. He will share his experiences before and after the attack and provide insight into the ongoing war's complicated and convoluted security dynamics.

Bio:

LTC Tomio “Tomes” Toyama, a native of Indiana, is an Army Reserve Foreign Area Officer (FAO) and Project Manager at Apple. He returned this summer from an assignment to the office of the United States Security Coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

He earned his BS in Arabic, French, and Systems Engineering at the United States Military Academy (USMA) and commissioned as an Infantry officer in 2005. Upon graduation, LTC Toyama joined the East-West Center (EWC) as a Fellow in Honolulu, Hawaii and studied Islamic & Japanese History for his MA in 2007.

Since 2008, Tomes has deployed to Iraq twice (2008-2009, 2011), Kenya and Somalia (2012) as an active duty Officer. As a Reserve officer, he has served at the Special Operations Command - Pacific (SOCPAC) and then deployed to Jordan (2017-2018) and most recently, to Israel and the West Bank (2023-2024). In the Army, he worked in various roles from combat advisor, information operations planner, intelligence officer, and most recently as a Foreign Area Officer.

In September 2016, he transitioned to the commercial sector and began his project management career at Apple in Cupertino, California. This role has taken him across China and the world to help secure one of the largest supply chains in the world. This summer, he returned to Apple, and will support Special Operations Command’s innovation initiatives during his reserve duty .

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