A Life Built on Service.
Colonel Brad Dean is a native of western Oklahoma. He graduated from Leedey High School in 1994 and entered Oklahoma State University that fall, where he joined Army ROTC and served as Executive Officer of Troops and as Ranger Challenge Team Captain.
On 28 October 1995, during his sophomore year, Brad enlisted in the Oklahoma Army National Guard as an 11-Bravo infantry soldier. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Aviation Branch on 7 May 1999 upon graduation from Oklahoma State University.
From those first days as an infantry soldier to the cockpit of Army aircraft, Brad built a career defined by service — ultimately retiring at the rank of Colonel. Along the way he saw firsthand the weight that service leaves behind, and the too-common gap between those who need support and the help that actually reaches them.
Today, Brad channels that same sense of duty into the Reconnect Foundation, which he co-founded with fellow aviator Chief Chase Rutledge (retired). Together they built RECON-nect to give every veteran and first responder a private, always-available companion for the fight that continues long after the mission ends.