Biography
Jeff Emanuel served in the US Air Force from 1999-2004 as a Tactical Air Controller (TACP), working as a member of conventional and Joint Special Operations units as a communications expert and precision airstrike controller. His assignments included a year in Korea and combat duty in Iraq, where he was a member of the task force responsible for the rescue of prisoner of war PFC Jessica Lynch, among other missions.He later returned to Iraq as an embedded reporter, working on the front lines in Baghdad, Salman Pak, Samarra, Tal Afar, Balad, Kirkuk, and elsewhere, with units from the 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions, the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Special Forces Group, and several others. His reporting from the front, which has been published in several prestigious newspapers and magazines, earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination, as well as the distinct honor of being compared to legendary World War II reporter Ernie Pyle by talk radio icon Paul Harvey.
After his tour in the military ended in 2004, Emanuel returned to school at the University of Georgia, where he earned a degree in Classics (with an emphasis on Classical Archaeology), and served as a leadership fellow with the University’s Center for International Trade and Security, researching nuclear proliferation and radiological terrorism and editing texts, including Radiological Terrorism and the Search for Resiliency, a book for which he served as chief editor. While at Georgia, Emanuel was repeatedly recognized for excellence in the areas of citizenship and scholarship while also competing as a member of the University's Triathlon and Water Polo teams. He also holds a degree in Information Systems Technology (2002).
The grandson of missionaries who served in post-WWII Japan, Emanuel has been recognized by the military for excellence, as well as by several communities (both foreign and domestic) for his volunteer service, which has included establishing a program to teach English to orphaned children in rural South Korea, and being trained to serve as an officer of the Juvenile Court representing underprivileged children in abuse, neglect, and custody cases in Georgia. He has been the recipient of Rotary Club awards for local and international community service, and was named the University of Georgia's "Pillar of the Community" in 2005.Emanuel is currently an Associate with the Patriot Group, an Austin, Texas-based consulting firm, and is a regular contributor to the Weekly Standard (online), The American Spectator, and Human Events newspaper, and his columns have appeared in such publications as the Washington Times, the American Thinker, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal, the Jerusalem Post, and National Review Online, as well as several others. In addition, he is a contract health care policy analyst and publication editor for a free-market think tank.
A professional writer and editor and a member of the "new media revolution," Emanuel is a Director Emeritus of RedState.com, the online community recognized for being the “right-leaning weblog most-read on Capitol Hill.” He is also an administrator and contributing editor for the bipartisan Georgia political weblog Peach Pundit. In addition, he has been a columnist, weblogger, and editor for news and opinion site Townhall.com.Emanuel's writings and experiences have also led to his being a featured guest on several national and major market television and radio programs, including The O'Reilly Factor, the Laura Ingraham Show, and those hosted by Mike Gallagher, Janet Parshall, George Putnam, Frank Pastore, Melanie Morgan, and many more.
He currently lives in Austin, Texas.
