Hamlin "Ham" Tallent

Rear Admiral (ret) Hamlin Tallent grew up in the Missouri Ozarks and joined the US Navy shortly after graduating from Southwest Missouri State University. He served for 32 years and now lives in Escondido, California.

Before joining the Check 6 team, RADM Tallent was the Director of Operations (J3) for the United States European Command responsible for advising the commander on all operational issues including logistics, command and control, and training of U.S. forces in the USEUCOM area of responsibility from Norway to South Africa. RADM Tallent specifically led counter terrorism efforts in Africa and his team developed the Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative: a blueprint for developing coalitions through capacity building. He was responsible for training the USEUCOM head quarters staff and for resourcing joint training for U.S. Component commands in Europe.

RADM Tallent has significant leadership experience while serving in various tours to include the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. He served as a commanding officer four times in his career: Fighter Squadron One Forty Two (VF-142), an F-14 Tomcat squadron; Air Wing Fourteen, an eight squadron unit deployed on the USS Carl Vinson; Tactical Training Group Atlantic, a graduate level fleet training organization and Carrier Battle Group One; responsible for training all west coast battle groups.

RADM Tallent has extensive training experience. He served as a flight instructor at the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) and as a flight instructor at Fighter Squadron 124, the U.S. Navy’s west coast F-14 Tomcat training squadron. He was also director of the Fleet Readiness Aviation Maintenance Program responsible for training all west coast enlisted aviation personnel. As commanding officer of Tactical Training Group Atlantic he was responsible for the training of individual officers as well as Flag officer staffs. As commander of Carrier Battle Group One he was responsible for training all deploying west coast battle groups and for the integration of aviation, surface and submarine combatants.