Capt. Ryan J. McCombie, USN, Ret., Penn State ’70, has over twenty-six years of service as a US Navy SEAL and his last duty station was as the senior navy representative and faculty instructor at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
McCombie completed the Navy ROTC (NROTC) program at Penn State and after graduation he was commissioned into the US Navy as an ensign and reported to the Naval Special Warfare Group Atlantic. He trained in underwater demolition team training (Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL Training). After he completed his training, he began his career with a SEAL tour in Vietnam where he trained and served with commandos from all over the world. He was the first to serve two years with the elite French Commando Hubert. He also served as the operations officer of the highly regarded Red Cell Team.
Captain McCombie was selected to be the first United States military attaché́ to the US embassy in Brazzaville, Congo. Following that assignment, he commanded SEAL Team Two from 1985 to 1987. McCombie then served in high level positions at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, DC and finally, as the senior navy representative and faculty member at the Army War College, Carlisle.
Mr. McCombie has consulted with international American, French, Belgium, and Canadian companies around the world. He is now an independent business consultant and serves on the board of advisors/directors of several national firms.
Captain McCombie was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the National Eagle Scout Association, a graduate of Penn State University and the National War College in Washington, DC. He is a former member of the Centre County United Way board of directors. He is a member of the Pennsylvania State University board of trustees and on the board of advisers for outreach development and chair of the military scholarship foundation of the world campus at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of the Penn State Mount Nittany Society.
In 2017, he participated in a documentary project with WPSU called The Vietnam War: Telling the Pennsylvania Story. You can learn more here http://atimetoheal.wpsu.org.
