John Priddy is the Executive Director, Southeast Region, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Air and Marine Operations (AMO). AMO is a federal law enforcement organization dedicated to serving and protecting the American people through advanced aeronautical and maritime capabilities. With approximately 1,800 federal agents and mission support personnel, 240 aircraft, and 300 marine vessels operating throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands, AMO conducts its mission in the air and maritime environments at and beyond the border, and within the nation’s interior.

As the senior executive responsible for operations across the Southeast Region, his duties include requirements planning, assessing the effectiveness of air and marine forces, and organizing operations with military officials and senior executives from federal, state, and local agencies to combat transnational criminal activity and prepare and respond to national contingencies.

In 1994, Executive Director Priddy attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning and was commissioned into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant. He completed flight school at Fort Rucker. From 1999 to 2000, he was stationed in the Balkans where he served as an aeromedical evacuation platoon leader. He served in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2004 as an attack helicopter company commander.

Executive Director Priddy began his federal law enforcement career with the former U.S. Customs Service in September 2004 as an aircraft pilot in Tucson, Arizona. While serving there, he flew UH-60 Black Hawks and was eventually assigned to the foreign operations group where he flew Cessna Citation interceptors on air interdiction missions.

In October 2008, Executive Director Priddy was promoted to Supervisory Air Interdiction Agent and selected to open the new National Air Security Operations Center–Grand Forks (NASOC–GF) in North Dakota. In 2009, he was selected as NASOC–GF’s deputy director and subsequently promoted to director in January 2010. Executive Director Priddy focused on developing NASOC–GF into the first MQ-9 training center outside of the Department of Defense and emphasized unmanned aircraft system (UAS) support to outside stakeholders, particularly during the 2008–2011 Red River flood recovery efforts. Additionally, he served as the Deputy Incident Commander for Super Bowl XLVI, led the first deployment of the Guardian UAS to the Dominican Republic, and was instrumental to AMO’s role in testing the “Harvester” radiological collection pods. In July 2012, he was selected as the new Director, UAS Operations, at AMO Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

In 2015, Executive Director Priddy was selected as the Director, Air and Marine Operations, for the San Diego Air and Marine Branch. During his time in San Diego, he advocated for increased coordination with partner agencies through the Regional Coordinating Mechanism and worked to increase AMO’s maritime patrol aircraft use on the California coast.

In 2017, Executive Director Priddy entered the Senior Executive Service as the Executive Director, Northern Region, overseeing all air and marine operations for the northern half of the United States.

Executive Director Priddy is a graduate of the Department of Homeland Security Senior Executive Service Development Program at American University.