Lieutenant Colonel William (Ret) Van Ritch attended Appalachian State University in 1972 and acquired his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration and later Masters of Arts through Webster University. He accumulated 35 years of experience in management, operational planning and execution, logistical planning, security operations, vulnerability assessments, intelligence operations, terrorism analysis, and investigations. He authored the books: "Background Investigations for Law Enforcement" & "Rural Surveillance Operations" and was the author of a Body Language video.
His duties and positions included:
- Infantry Officer, Fort Ord
- Counterespionage Officer, West Berlin, Germany
- Special Forces Detachment Commander
- SERE Field training Chief
- Deputy G2 SOCENT
- U.S. Army Security Intelligence Activity Desk Chief
- Senior Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army Special Forces Command
- Operations Officer, Allied Counterintelligence Group, Europe
- Law Enforcement Instructor with the NC Justice Academy
- Deputy Federal Security Director for the TSA
- President of American Iraqi Solutions Group (AISG)
- Executive Mentor to the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior Directorate of Intelligence
- Senior Analyst for Army Lessons Learned for Special Operations Command
- President and owner of The Preferred Edge
LTC Van Ritch's military education included: Special Forces Officer Course, US Army Ranger Course, Counterintelligence Agent Course, Intelligence Advance Course, Industrial Security Course, US Secret Service Course, British Special Intelligence course, US Army Staff Course, USAF Anti-Terrorism Course, British Surveillance Course, US Navy Survival School, and Special Operations Course.