Mark D. Gatanas, born in Chios, Greece, and a native of New York, served in the US Army from 1960 to 1986, retiring with the rank of Colonel. An Infantry officer and Middle East specialist, he completed two combat tours in Vietnam and a diplomatic tour that turned into a combat tour in the Middle East. In Vietnam, he led a rifle company of the First Cavalry Division (Air Mobile) that was surrounded for over 48 hours by a force almost twenty times its size, an action and farther actions for which he was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry, along with the Bronze Star for heroism with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Defense Superior Service Medal, and other US and foreign decorations. In the 1980s he served as Assistant and Military Advisor, in turn, to Ambassadors Philip Habib, Robert “Bud” McFarlane, and Donald Rumsfeld, President Reagan’s representatives for the Middle East.  With Habib, he played a key role in the evacuation of over 23,000 PLO fighters from Lebanon.  While with McFarlane, in addition to his negotiating roles, he acted as Military Advisor to Colonel Michelle Aoun, Commander of the 8th Lebanese Brigade.  The Brigade was heavily outnumbered and out gunned by Syrian, Druze, Shiite, Hezbollah, and other forces in the fight for Souq al Gharb.  After the successful defense of this ridgeline which also overlooked and threatened the US Marine positions, he later was instrumental in securing a truce during Lebanon’s civil war—efforts for which McFarlane, then the National Security Advisor, wrote that “Colonel Gatanas saved Lebanon from collapse.” After retiring from the Army, he pursued a career in information technology with EDS and CACI, then founding and leading VizorNet, Inc., while remaining active in public service and professional life.  In November 2009, Colonel Gatanas was the recipient of the AHEPA Medal of Freedom “for his heroic actions above and beyond the Call of Duty.”