Jim Lechner has spent his life at the center of hard situations, and uses that perspective to make sense of them for everyone else.
Today Jim reports from the frontline in Ukraine for Newsmax, teaches counterinsurgency, intelligence and military history at Liberty University, and consults for militaries, law-enforcement and intelligence agencies where the stakes are highest.
That perspective was earned. Over 27 years in uniform, Jim served in six conflicts, from the streets of Mogadishu to the fight for Ramadi to the mountains of Afghanistan, and rose to advise at the national policy level, including the National Security Council and the CIA. He was wounded in action and went on to continue to lead soldiers and serve our nation.
Plenty of people have seen conflict. Few can translate it. Jim moves easily between the foxhole and the policy table, the battlefield and the boardroom, turning firsthand experience into judgment that leaders can act on.
Whether he is on a stage, inside a precinct, or filing from the front, he works the same way: start with what actually happened, find the lesson inside it, and hand it over in plain language.
“Using snipers shows the greatest amount of restraint. Innocent people are not getting killed.”
JAMES LECHNER
AUTHOR
With My Shield (Osprey, 2023)
CORRESPONDENT
Newsmax · Ukraine, since 2022
The SOFX Report · since 2014
Soldier of Fortune · since 2020
EDUCATOR
Adjunct Professor, Liberty University
ADVISORY
National Security Council & CIA
SERVICE
27 years, six conflicts
RECOGNITION
Purple Heart & Bronze Star
A young Ranger in the fight later known as Black Hawk Down; wounded in action and decorated.
Brigade leadership during the turn of Anbar, recounted in A Chance in Hell and touched on in American Sniper.
Advises at the national level, including the National Security Council and the CIA.
Senior advisor helping translate hard-won lessons into strategy on the ground.
Publishes his account of Mogadishu and teaches U.S. History as an adjunct professor at Liberty University.
Reports from the front for Newsmax and serves as a military advisor — the work he does today.