Dick Speer (R-NC-2)

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Dick Speer

Campaign links: Richard Speer (R-NC-2)

Richard “Dick” Speer

Dick Speer Congressional Candidate North Carolina District 2

Biography of Dick Speer from Speer for Congress

I grew up the eldest of five children. Our father was a jet mechanic in the US Air Force so we ended up being stationed in many places both here in the States and overseas. Some of those places included Laon, France, it was at this time that we lost President Kennedy and our forces went on high alert around the world. We lived in a small two-bedroom house in southern California when my dad was sent to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Later, we spent three years at Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota, a major Strategic Air Command base; during this time the Arab-Israeli war erupted and once again our forces went on high alert, some advance forces were even launched. I think being around all of this, and the impact it had on our family, instilled in me a sense of duty to the country.

I enlisted in the US Army in March, 1976, shortly before graduating from High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. After Basic, Infantry Training, and Jump school, I was assigned to the 82ND Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and spent the next 10-years serving in a variety of positions including infantryman, squad leader, operations sergeant, and as an operations sergeant with the US Army Airborne Special Operations Test Board. In 1987, I was reassigned to Fort Carson, Colorado with the 4TH Infantry Division. A year later I returned to Fort Bragg where I completed the Special Forces Qualification Course. I spent the remainder of my career assigned to various Special Forces units at Fort Bragg finally retiring in July, 1998.

Upon retiring, I went to work for a major security firm as a nuclear security consultant. Over the course of the next 11-years I provided consulting services at more than two-thirds of the 63 nuclear power stations across the country. Finally, in 2009 I decided to settle back down in North Carolina and took a job as a nuclear security specialist with Progress Energy working at their corporate offices in Raleigh.

Politically, I view myself as socially conservative and fiscally as very conservative. While I might be described as a defense hawk, in truth I strongly believe that maintaining a position of sufficient strength actually results in less real conflict. I have been a member of the Republican National Committee for the past 18 years. I am also a member of the North Carolina Republican Party, the Cumberland County Republican Men’s Club, the Heritage Foundation, and the Young America’s Foundation.

I enjoy hunting, fishing, and golf. I am a sponsor of the annual Shriners Children’s Hospital Fund Charity Golf Tournament held in Southport, North Carolina. I am also a member of the American Legion.