Eric Sanderson

I am an Air Force Special Warfare Officer currently based at the United States Air Force Academy, where I recruit and develop the next generation of Special Warfare officers across the country. Additionally, I work to advance autonomous technologies to benefit the joint force. Since 2024, I have worked as the Air Force's technical point of contact for Pterodynamics, a drone company developing a Group 2 UAS for AFSPECWAR. I also served as an Executive Officer for the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, researching autonomous military systems.

In 2023, I deployed across Eastern Europe leading precision strike teams, and most recently deployed in 2025 to Poland as a Senior Air Advisor supporting over 1,500 partner drone operations. During that deployment, I used an LLM to build a Python script that cut a seven-hour intelligence analysis cycle down to one hour.

I'm interested in AI-augmented decision support for tactical operators. I co-authored a piece in the Modern War Institute's Journal on Innovation and Autonomy proposing a three-layer agentic architecture to augment JTAC decision-making, then built a Raspberry Pi prototype that won the "Warfighter Impact" award at the DAFBOT Agentic Challenge. I'm currently working with the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop it into an operational tool. I am also enrolled in a post-baccalaureate mathematics sequence to build the technical foundation for graduate-level work.

My educational background is in foreign policy. I did my undergrad at Yale, where I studied Global Affairs and conducted research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on nuclear deterrence policy.

I enjoy mountaineering, rowing, and hanging out with my wife and pet schnauzer.

Projects

Built using Claude as the coding agent. Through these projects, I learned practical lessons about UX design, database connections, API costs, and mobile device integration.

Experience

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Deputy Special Warfare Branch Chief

2025–Present

U.S. Air Force Academy — Colorado Springs, CO

  • Air Force technical point of contact for AFWERX-sponsored drone company Pterodynamics, bridging operational requirements with industry research to develop a Group 2 unmanned aerial system built for austere environments.
  • Leading Air Force Special Warfare officer candidate outreach initiatives nationwide.

Senior Air Operations Advisor

2025

Special Operations Task Force — Poland

  • Deployed 150 days advising partner force operations; supported 1,500+ drone missions, enabling effects against 3,500+ points of interest.
  • Built a Python script automating intelligence analysis, reducing a 7-hour process to 1 hour and freeing capacity for operational advising.
  • Represented Special Operations Command Europe at an interagency conference on unmanned military systems.

Executive Officer

2024–2025

DAF Scientific Advisory Board — Pentagon

  • Researched autonomous military systems and artificial intelligence initiatives for the DAF Scientific Advisory Board.
  • Coordinated the agenda and logistics across three trips focused on autonomous technology for intelligence and air operations.

Weapons & Tactics Officer-in-Charge

2023–2025

13th Air Support Operations Squadron — Colorado Springs, CO

  • Led instruction of Air Force Special Warfare training tasks for a 124-person squadron; planned and executed a squadron-level rapid deployment and communications exercise.

Precision Strike Team Leader

2022–2023

4th Air Support Operations Squadron — Estonia, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria

  • Deployed 220 days training soldiers in long-range radio tactics to improve combat survivability.
  • Coordinated air operations across four NATO multinational exercises.
  • Ranked #1 of 62 among 1st Lieutenants in the 93rd Air Operations Ground Wing annual performance report.

Special Warfare Officer / JTAC Trainee

2020–2022

353rd Special Warfare Training Squadron — San Antonio, TX

  • Completed Air Force Special Warfare training pipeline; earned Joint Terminal Attack Controller certification. Graduated #1 of 25 from the Tactical Air Control Party Schoolhouse.

Education

Yale University

2015–2020

B.A. Global Affairs | Russian Language Certificate

  • Air Force ROTC Distinguished Graduate — ranked #1 nationally out of ~1,800 cadets, Class of 2020.
  • Boren Scholar · Russian Scholar Laureate · John Kerry Initiative Fellow
  • Yale Lightweight Crew · Yale Triathlon Club (Captain) · Yale-China Student Association Board

Military Courses

Research, Publications & Awards

DAF Bot Agentic Challenge — Award Winner

2025–Present
  • Placed in top 10% of submissions; competitively selected to receive Air Force Research Laboratory development support to build a semi-autonomous JTAC assistant.
  • Applying automatic speech recognition, local large language models, and retrieval augmented generation technologies to enhance controller awareness in saturated air control environments.

Modern War Journal — Author

2026
  • Published "Joint Terminal Attack Controller in the Autonomous Age," examining AI integration and human-machine teaming for air-to-ground operations.

Yale Jackson School Alumni Discussion — Moderator

2025
  • Moderated a panel on American foreign policy and Russia's war in Ukraine for 240 attendees.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — Research Associate

2018 & 2020
  • Analyzed U.S. extended nuclear deterrence in Europe, delivering research briefings to senior LLNL stakeholders on strategic stability and allied assurance policy.

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