Professor Emeritus Robert Gardner

Professor Emeritus Robert Gardner, Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) served with distinction for over 27 years as an artillery officer, operational planner, and joint service officer. Besides normal command tours, his active duty career included serving as a naval gunfire instructor, two deployments as a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Fire Support Officer/Assistant Operations Officer, service as a Fires and Fire Support Coordination instructor at the Marine Aviation and Weapons Tactics Squadron-One, over four years of service on the personal staff of two different Marine Corps Commandants, and command of an advisor team supporting 9000 Iraqi border forces between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the Syrian border. A graduate of the Naval War College, the Joint Staff College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting, Colonel Gardner also served as the CJ-5 Plans Chief for Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), the U-5 Policy Chief for United Nations Command and the C-5 Deputy Policy Chief for Combined Forces Command in the Republic of Korea, and as the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations (G-3) Colonel Gardner led planning and operations for the 1st Marine Division throughout its major combat operations during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Following his tour in Afghanistan, Colonel Gardner served as the Commandant of the Marine Corps’ Senior Service Advisor to the President of the U.S. Naval War College from 2011-2012 and concurrently taught as a military professor in the Joint Maritime Operations Department. Upon retirement from the Marine Corps, he assumed the duties as the Deputy Director for the Maritime Advanced Warfighting School (MAWS), helping over 570 graduate-level students develop 3- and 4-star level operational planning skills, adapt strategic theory to real-world security challenges, and align campaign design to achieve strategic objectives. He received the College Civilian Faculty Award for Excellence in Service in 2024 and was designated a U.S. Naval War College Professor Emeritus in 2025.