Dave Dilegge is a retired USMCR Intelligence and Counterintelligence / HUMINT officer. He is also a former USMC civilian intelligence analyst and worked several years in the private sector. He served with the 1st Marine Division during Operation Desert Storm and earned the Combat Action Ribbon during an Iraqi counterattack in the Burgan Oil Field. In 1999 he was the recipient of the National Military Intelligence Association’s Colonel Donald G. Cook Award for his work in supporting USMC and DoD urban operations analysis, wargaming and experimentation. He is currently a Director at the Small Wars Foundation and is Editor-in-Chief of Small Wars Journal.
Dilegge co-edited the following Small Wars Journal anthology books: Blood and Concrete: 21st Century Conflict in Urban Centers and Megacities, Global Radical Islamist Insurgency: Al Qaeda and Islamic State Networks Focus, Hammer of the Caliphate: The Territorial Demise of the Islamic State, Jihadi Terrorism, Insurgency, and the Islamic State, Islamist Insurgents on the Defensive: Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in 2016, and Global Radical Islamist Insurgency: Al Qaeda Network Focus Vol. I: 2007-2011.
He was the primary author of two U.S. Marine Corps books: The Urban Generic Information Requirements Handbook and the North Korea Handbook. He was also the author of the intelligence chapter of Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) Newsletter 99-16: Urban Combat Operations.
He is a member of the Marine Corps Association, US Naval Institute, Military Writers Guild, Warlord Loop, Veterans of Foreign Wars, National Rifle Association, National Italian American Foundation, Order Sons of Italy in America, Nesbitt/Nisbet Society of North America, and Tau Kappa Epsilon.
“For Dave Dilegge and Bill Nagle, founders and editors of Small Wars Journal. They gave the counterguerrilla underground a home, at a time when misguided leaders banned even the word ‘insurgency,’ though busily losing to one. Scholars, warriors, and agitators, Dave and Bill laid the foundation for battlefield success: our generation owes them a debt of gratitude.” – Dave Kilcullen, Counterinsurgency book dedication.