U.S. Army’s top enlisted spy catcher brings lessons from tiny Maryland town to the job

The former high school centerfielder from a tiny Maryland town used to catch flies. Now, he helps lead the United States Army’s Counterintelligence Command, charged with catching spies.

Decades after the conclusion of his baseball career, Craig Hood, a Fairplay native and four-sport athlete at Washington County’s Williamsport High School, claims the skill sets from his athletic career still apply to his day job as an Army counterintelligence special agent, but more than that he attributes who he is as a person to lessons like the Golden Rule his parents taught.

“Treat others as you want to be treated,” said the command sergeant major, during an interview at a barbecue restaurant aptly named “The Hideaway” in Odenton near Fort Meade. “Where I grew up and those values certainly were something that shaped me as a person.”

Also sitting at the table is the public affairs officer for the newly formed unit Hood helps lead. He puts the team’s mission in terms that are not too divulging or cluttered with Army acronyms.

“We’re here to protect Army plans,” said Public Affairs Officer Adam Lowe, likening the command’s role to protecting a team’s playbook.

International affairs and espionage

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the largest ground war in Europe since World War II — and a moment of challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party, protecting the “playbook” and the Department of Defense is no abstract task for Sgt. Maj. Hood.

“The commanding general and I, we certainly want both the adversary to know that we have a playbook and that we’re prepared,” he said, “but also give confidence (to) the American people that we’re prepared to defend.”

Lowe gave the recent example of military service members receiving smartwatches unsolicited in the mail. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division issued a June release about the watches, which were equipped with theft-enabling malware. The Army Counterintelligence Command, along with entities like the Criminal Investigation Division and Federal Bureau of Investigation, look into such instances to ensure sensitive information is not being stolen and that national security is not compromised.

Hood now helps lead the command of about 1,200 individuals, both military and civilian, focused on national security.

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“My job now is to help empower them,” he said, “to make sure they have the resources they need to be able to identify those issues to protect our army and our nation.”

Recruiting and Hood’s early years in the Army

One of the major challenges for several of the United States’ Armed Services now is recruiting — with the Army, Navy and Air Force all recently falling short of their respective recruiting goals.  One percent of the nation’s population currently serves in the military, according to the Army.

Hood never planned to be part of that percentage, and if it were not for the persistence of an Army recruiter, he probably wouldn't be. As a student of sociology at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va., Hood wanted to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation upon graduating from college.

But an Army recruiter kept calling each year he was in school at Shepherd, Hood said. After coming home to Washington County without an offer from the FBI, he enlisted in 1997.

“I was going to do my five years, and I was going to go be an FBI agent,” he said. A career counterintelligence special agent, his first duty assignment was at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

But an attack right up the road in Arlington, Virginia, from where he lived and worked changed his course.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon, which serves as headquarters for the Army and the rest of the Department of Defense, "was very, very close to home,” Hood said. “For me, it changed my perception on whether I stayed in or not.”

Off to war and the evolution of military service

Hood deployed to Iraq when the “war on terror,” originally aimed at al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was waged in the Persian Gulf nation — a place where the grave consequences of illusory security intelligence became clear. More than 4,000 Americans died as a result of the conflict in Iraq, according to statistics from the Defense Department.

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“There was certainly some dangerous situations that I was in," Hood said. He received the Iraqi Campaign Medal with two campaign stars for his service during that war, which lasted from 2003 to 2011 and accounted for a total of more than 200,000 lives lost.

The lessons Hood might have learned on the Williamsport baseball field, basketball court, cross-country course or even gridiron are inadequate comparisons with the costs, casualties and continuing consequences of such a conflict. Hood, himself, strays from simplistic characterizations.

“Being a soldier isn’t just about picking up a rifle and going off to war,” said Hood, noting the 200-plus jobs available in the Army as well as the evolution of military service, including in his command. “We have agents that are specially trained to work in that cyber domain,” he said.

From small town life to an Army career, coming full circle

These days, in several ways, Hood has seen his life come near full circle — from the ballfields of Washington County to his start in the Army to his current leadership role for the United States.

“The skill sets from the time I started playing sports as a young man till now still apply,” said Hood, a native of a community that even today has a total population of about 500 residents.

Larry Wadel, a former mathematics teacher at Williamsport High and Hood’s baseball coach, described him as a “leader” and an encourager, someone who talked to others to pick them up on the bench. Now, Hood boosts those skills in the command, staying shoulder-to-shoulder with others sometimes during exercises.

“He was determined,” Wadel said. “Whatever he wanted, he would go get.”

Although Hood’s original aim to be in the FBI took a different course, he still gets to be involved in solving mysteries and cases. His command, established in December 2021, often works alongside the bureau — as was the case when an Ohio man was caught providing assistance to a foreign terrorist organization, detailed in a June announcement by the Department of Justice.

Reflecting on the global power dynamics related to his role in the United States military, Hood sees something of a return to a prior point in his career.

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“What’s old is new again,” Hood said. “When I came in the Army in 1997, a lot of the things we studied were the Russians, then 9/11 happened, then obviously the focus was on al-Qaeda.”

Hood referred to a return shift for the U.S. in the 2022 National Defense Strategy, which he said has “refocused (the U.S.) on that great power competition.” The strategy calls out both China and Russia as “more dangerous challenges” despite the persistence of terrorist threats.

Teaching on the job

After more than 25 years in the Army, Hood is contemplating the next steps in his career. He’s pursuing a master’s degree in teaching and has interest in high school social studies.

For now, he has an Army job to do, with some similarities to classroom teaching, and may well recall his high school baseball coach’s lesson borrowed from Hall of Fame baseball player Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over til it’s over.”

“From my unit’s perspective, for us to continue to be successful, we have to continue to educate,” Hood said.

Many people don’t even realize an Army counterintelligence special agent occupation exists, he noted. At the end of the interview at The Hideaway, Hood — the Army's top enlisted spy catcher — put his current role in such relatable terms that even his future students might find the profession fascinating.

“There are foreign entities out there, spies, if you will, that are trying to gather information about our Army,” he said. “We’re trying to counter them.”

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Dwight A. Weingarten is an investigative reporter, covering the Maryland State House and state issues. He can be reached at dweingarten@gannett.com or on Twitter at @DwightWeingart2.

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Army’s top enlisted spy catcher brings lessons from Maryland hometown