James A. Gagliano
James A. Gagliano was born in Fort Ord, California and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and a concentration in Military History from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1987. He was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the United States Army, serving as a Light Infantry Platoon Leader and Company Executive Officer in the 10th Mountain Division, while stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Drum, New York. His awards include the Airborne, Air Assault and Jungle Expert badges, Ranger tab, and Expert Infantryman’s badge.
Mr. Gagliano entered on duty as an FBI Special Agent (SA) on February 10, 1991. From 1991 to 1997, Mr. Gagliano was assigned to the New York Division, where he worked Organized Crime, Narcotics and Money Laundering investigations. In early 1997, Mr. Gagliano was selected for the Hostage Rescue Team (HRT), the FBI’s elite counter-terror unit located in Quantico, VA, participating in numerous overseas deployments and high-risk tactical resolutions, before returning to the New York Division in 2001 to work Drug matters and as the principal Undercover Agent (UCA) on Police Corruption, Drug, Gambling, and Organized Crime cases. In November 2002, Mr. Gagliano was selected as the Senior Team Leader (STL) of the 45-man FBI New York Office SWAT Team, where he also served as an attachment to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) U.S. military units in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom on three separate deployments between 2002/2003. In November 2005, Mr. Gagliano was named to head the Crisis Management and Operations Center Programs in New York. Assignments included oversight of the SWAT Program, USERT (Dive Search), ERT (Crime Scene), Operational Medicine, Rapid Deployment, the Special Agent Bomb Technicians (SABTs), & the Hazardous Materials Response Team (HMRT). Responsibilities also included the design & execution of annual Field Training Exercises; one involved approximately 1,000 NYO employees, which was featured on CNN’s “Out in the Open” television show in September 2007. He was awarded the FBI’s Medal for Bravery, the FBI’s second highest award for valor, for actions in June of 1993 while serving on the SWAT Team.
