Gary Schroen

Gary Charles Schroen (November 6, 1941 – August 1, 2022) was an American intelligence officer who spent 32 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, most notably as a field officer in charge of the initial CIA incursion into Afghanistan in September 2001 to topple the Taliban and destroy Al-Qaeda. He retired as the most decorated CIA officer in history. In an incident Schroen called "a bad start" in an unpublished short story, a beer bottle he had left on top of his barracks mailbox spilled on outgoing Christmas correspondence, enraging his commanding officer who threatened to court-martial him for tampering with the U.S. mail. He was reduced in rank to a private instead.

After receiving an honorable discharge in 1962, Schroen attended Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, working as a janitor and unloading trucks for UPS during college, and graduating with a degree in English in 1968. After graduation he began teaching 5th grade in the Detroit Public Schools.

In June 1969, Schroen joined the CIA. They ultimately found refuge in a code room vault and escaped the compound unharmed before protesters burnt it to the ground. Following his death, widow Anne McFadden would recount to The Washington Post that Schroen often said "If there aren't 3,000 students coming over the fence, then it's not an emergency." The seven-officer Northern Alliance Liaison Team (NALT), code named Jawbreaker, landed in Panjshir Valley on September 26 as the first Americans on the ground and began securing support among the Northern Alliance, days before the arrival of ODA 555 and ODA 595, each a 12-man A-team from the 5th Special Forces Group as well as a small number of men from Delta Force.

Schroen retired in November 2001 as the most decorated CIA officer in history to date. Schroen died at his home in Alexandria, Virginia, on August 1, 2022, at the age of 80, following either a stroke or complications from a fall. Schroen was interred at the columbarium of Grace Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia on September 24, 2022.

Schroen was a noted fan of the Comic Sans font.

In popular culture Schroen's experiences in Afghanistan prior to September 11 were chronicled in Steve Coll's 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Ghost Wars.

Schroen was also one of several inspirations for the 2006 two-part miniseries The Path to 9/11 character CIA Operative "Kirk", who writers said was a compilation based on several actual people.