Dwight Mears is a retired Army major with a military background in aviation, military intelligence, and strategic planning. He was commissioned from West Point as an aviation officer and flew and commanded in helicopter and airplane units.  He earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School. His dissertation concerned the internment of US airmen in Switzerland during World War II, and formed the basis of an effort to amend the controlling law for the Prisoner of War (POW) Medal, which did not align with restrictive US Defense Department policy requiring a declared conflict with a captor. In 2013, his advocacy resulted in an amendment that presently allows US military internees, detainees, and hostages to be recognized with the POW Medal so long as their treatment was generally comparable to that of US POWs throughout history. He discusses this work on POWs and internees with host Jim Fausone.