An Interview With James Schwartz (Arlington County Pentagon Incident Commander)

James Schwartz is a senior fellow with the Program on Crisis Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and teaches in the Executive Education programs including, Leadership in Crises, the General and Flag Officer Homeland Security Executive Seminar, and Leadership in Homeland Security. Schwartz is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Committee on Terrorism and Homeland Security which he chaired from 2008 until August 2014. He previously served on the Advisory Council for the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group (ITACG) and subsequently the Joint Countererrorism Assessment Team (JCAT) at the National Counter Terrorism Center. He also served on the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee and was a member of the Advisory Committee for the Department of Homeland Security’s first Quadrennial Review in 2010. Jim Schwartz retired in 2021 after serving five years as the Deputy County Manager for public safety and technology in Arlington, Virginia. Prior to that he served in the Arlington County Fire Department for 32 years, the last eleven as Chief of Department. The Arlington County Fire Department was the lead agency for the response to the September 11, 2001 attack at the Pentagon. Chief Schwartz led the unified command effort for the Pentagon incident.