LCDR Spencer Abbot
Lieutenant Commander Spencer Abbot is a native of Yorktown, VA. He is a 1995 Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served as Brigade Commander and Plebe Summer Regimental Commander. He then attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, receiving a Master’s Degree in International Relations (MALD). During the summer of 1996 he served as an intern at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. He is currently a PhD candidate with the Fletcher School.
Subsequent to graduate school he completed U.S. Navy flight school and initial FA-18 Hornet training, receiving the Daedalians’ Orville Wright Award and the VFA-106 RADM Morin Award for the highest overall flight grades of the year for each program. During his initial squadron tour with the “Valions” of Strike-Fighter Squadron 15, he flew missions in support of the U.N. No-Fly Zones in Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch. Deployed aboard USS Enterprise in the Indian Ocean on September 11th 2001, he participated in the initial phases of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. During a 2003 deployment to the Mediterranean Sea aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt, he served as a flight lead during combat missions at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As his squadron’s community service coordinator, he organized a Partnership in Education with a local school for at-risk youth in 2003.
He then studied Spanish at the Defense Language Institute, and while living in Monterey worked as a volunteer scuba diver at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He subsequently served as an exchange FA-18 pilot with the Spanish Air Force, and during that tour completed an in-residence Executive MBA, taken in Spanish, at Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.
LCDR Abbot then served as a Department Head with the “Ragin’ Bulls” of Strike-Fighter Squadron 37 in Virginia Beach, VA. In early 2007 he was selected by the Office of the Secretary of Defense to lead a team of 15 military officers in administering the U.S. Senate Youth Program. He worked as the squadron’s Operations Officer during a 2007-08 deployment to the Persian Gulf aboard USS Harry S Truman, and served as a flight lead during numerous Close Air Support missions in conjunction with Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was awarded the Carrier Air Wing 3 Top Hook Award for the highest overall carrier landing performance during the deployment. He was selected by Commander Naval Air Forces for the 2008 Order of Daedalians Exceptional Pilot Award, and was nominated by Commander Naval Air Forces Atlantic for the 2008 American Legion Valor Award. His military decorations include the Air Medal and Navy Commendation Medal with combat “V” devices, and four Strike/Flight Air Medals.
LCDR Abbot has worked as an election supervisor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) during several elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. He has participated in leadership programs with the French-American Foundation, the U.S.-Spain Council, the German Marshall Fund and Atlantik-Brücke. He was selected as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. LCDR Abbot is currently a Military Fellow with the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).
