Oliver North

Oliver Laurence North was born in San Antonio, Texas and raised in Philmont, New York. He enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy in 1962, but was not commissioned as a Marine Officer until 1968; he missed some time due to injuries sustained in an automobile accident. After his commission, he served in the Vietnam War as a platoon leader; as commanding officer of the Marine Corps' Northern Training Area (now Camp Gonsalves) in Okinawa, Japan, as a jungle warfare tactics trainer/instructor; at Marine Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and as operations officer of 3rd Marine Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Div., Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. After graduating from the Command and Staff course at Newport, Rhode Island, he was assigned to the National Security Council (part of President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet) in 1981. North's most publicized assignment at NSC was to aid in negotiations for the Contras, a fighting force that was attempting to prevent a Communist regime, the Sand