JOHN
CATHCART.

John Cathcart was born in North Carolina and raised in Delaware and New Jersey. Before graduating from George Washington University in 1977, he studied for two years in Paris and Monterrey, Mexico.

Within a year of earning his degree in International Relations, he married and joined the United States Air Force. After his pilot's wings he flew the B-52 and the F-111. He later served as a military attaché in Colombia and Venezuela, flying the embassy's twin-engine C-12: the military version of the Super King Air.

The rest of his career ran through staff assignments at the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Special Operations & Low-Intensity Conflict) and U.S. Southern Command, where he served as Assistant Executive Officer to Generals Wesley K. Clark and Charles E. Wilhelm. He retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after twenty years.

In 1999 he was hired by American Airlines and spent most of that second career flying the 727 and MD-80 out of Miami. He retired from American in 2015.