M. E. Harrigan

Visit the author on the web at meharrigan.com.

M.E. Harrigan is a former National Security Agency Technical Director of the Defense Special Missile and Astronautics Center (DEFSMAC), a joint NSA/DIA organization. DEFSMAC is one of the most vital providers of intelligence information at the NSA complex.

During her twenty-seven year career with NSA, Ms. Harrigan worked as an Intelligence Analyst, specializing in foreign weapon systems and missile testing. Intelligence Analysis is a profession which demands well-developed problem solving techniques, research ability, writing skills, ingenuity, plenty of common sense, and, often, proficiency in physics, math and mind-reading.

Ms. Harrigan is a recipient of NSA's highest "Master" level award for her work in the Intelligence Analysis field.

Perhaps her most immediately rewarding work at NSA occurred in July, 1996, when she led a tiny team of analysts which determined the initial sequence of the explosion and crash of TWA-800 into the Atlantic Ocean off the south shore of Long Island. This timeline of events was sent to the FBI within 48 hours of the crash and was used for victim and aircraft recovery. According to the Assistant Director in Charge, New York Office, Ms. Harrigan and her team provided the most critical early information the FBI received from anyone in the Intelligence Community. But reconstructing the accident was also her most heartbreaking task at NSA: sixteen members of a high school French club in Ms. Harrigan's home town of Montoursville, PA., and their five chaperones died in the crash of TWA-800.

M.E. Harrigan is a graduate of Gettysburg College. She lives in Arizona with her husband and two German Shorthaired Pointers.