James R. Mcdonough
James R. McDonough is is the former director of the Florida Office of Drug Control and the secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections from 2006 to 2008.
A Brooklyn native, he graduated from both MIT and West Point and served as an Army officer in Vietnam. He rose to the rank of colonel before retiring and taking a series of national positions in drug law enforcement and security. He worked under the national drug czar before becoming the drug czar of Florida in 1999.
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the United States Military Academy, McDonough concluded his extensive Army career with assignments in Africa (Rwanda, Zaire, and Uganda) and the Balkans (Bosnia). During his military career, he was awarded three Bronze Stars (one for valor), the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Medal, among others. He also served as an associate professor of political science and international affairs at the U.S. Military Academy, as an analyst with the Defense Nuclear Agency, and as a detailee with the U.S. State Department.
“The roads that lead young men to war are not political roads, or national and international roads, but individual roads. What propels young men to combat is not the draft. Those who are not destined for armed combat usually will not be drafted for armed combat. The pool of human resources is vast, and the number of riflemen is small. The person who wants to avoid the draft will avoid it. And, in Vietnam, as the war went on, the numbers who successfully avoided the draft increased. So who fights? The fools, the uneducated, the knaves? I was none of these - or so I maintain. But I fought.”