1. Papa Dave’s military career
Dave Pettinari, a retired 20-year veteran of the Pueblo County, Colorado,
Sheriff's Office, now owns a computer forensics, Internet investigations, and
private investigations consulting business. He lives in Beulah, Colorado with his
wife, Gayle (Nana) a retired controller from Pueblo Community College.
Pettinari formerly was a commander of a high-tech crimes unit at the Pueblo
County (Colorado) Sheriff’s Office, including participation in the Colorado
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He and fellow officers arrested
36 online predators who go after children in chat rooms and in instant
messaging.
A retired major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, he served as a public affairs
officer in Operation Desert Storm (England, Turkey and Saudi Arabia), and in
Operation Provide Comfort, the airdrop mission to the Kurdish people in
Northern Iraq.
He served as a reserve member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigation,
specializing in computer crimes investigation and anti-hacking. He was
assigned to Travis AFB, CA, but served also at Peterson AFB in Colorado
Springs. He was activated for a month to examine 500 gigabytes of information
coming out of the Guantanamo, Cuba espionage investigation.
AFOSI agents conduct felony investigations for the Air Force, and counter-
intelligence, counter-espionage, and counter-terrorism investigations. In
wartime, they provide counter-intelligence support for protection of deployed
forces (such as air wings).
Pettinari is a graduate of Squadron Officers School and Air Command and Staff
College.
He retired from the Air Force Reserve in May 2005 after 21 years service.

4. These are Papa Dave’s medals:
AWARDS AND DECORATIONS DEVICES
1. Meritorious Service Medal 1
2. Air Force Commendation Medal 1
3. AF Outstanding Unit Award 0
4. National Defense Service Medal 1
5. Global War on Terrorism Service
Medal
0
6. Humanitarian Service Medal 0
7. AF Longevity Service 3
8. Armed Forces Reserve Medal with 1
'M' Device
2
9. AF Training Ribbon 1

5. One of my award citations:
CITATION TO ACCOMPANY THE AWARD OF
THE AIR FORCE COMMENDATION MEDAL
(THIRD OAK LEAF CLUSTER)
TO
DAVID R. PETTINARI
Special Agent David R. Pettinari distinguished himself in the performance of
outstanding services to the United States as Computer Crime
Investigator/Operations Officer, 3rd
Field Investigations Region, Detachment
303, Travis Air Force Base, California. The outstanding professional skill,
leadership, and ceaseless investigative efforts of Special Agent Pettinari
resulted in major contributions to the effectiveness and success of this
detachment. Special Agent Pettinari, activated for a month to support the
espionage investigation at Guantanamo, Cuba, examined 450 gigabytes of
computer information seized in the SrA Al Halabi investigation, providing
evidence, findings and support to counterintelligence operations. Special Agent
Pettinari authored an insightful personal data sheet on homicide suspect Sanier
Wonggoun that provided Diplomatic Security Service investigators with
information that potentially could help locate this fugitive in Thailand, where he
fled after murdering his pregnant wife in California while stationed at Travis
AFB. Wonggoun was on the Air Force’s Top 10 Most Wanted List. The
distinctive accomplishments of Special Agent Pettinari reflect credit upon
himself and the United States Air Force.

6. This is our unit coin when I was an AFOSI special agent at Peterson AFB, CO:

8. Subject: Veteran’s Day
WHAT IS A VET?
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a
jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.
Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone
together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg, or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the
refinery of adversity.
Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America
safe wear no badge or emblem.
You can’t tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia
sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose
overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of
exquisite bravery near the 38th
parallel.
She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to
sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or
didn’t come back AT ALL.
He is the Quantico drill instructor that has never seen combat - but
has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and
teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and
medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals
pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose
presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous
heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now
and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife
were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being a person who
offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so
others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and
he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country,
just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than
any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU”.
Remember November 11th
is Veterans Day.
“It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.

9. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the
flag, Who allows the protestor to burn the flag.”
Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, Lt Col, USMC

10. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the
flag, Who allows the protestor to burn the flag.”
Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, Lt Col, USMC