New Hampshire Native Is Outstanding Fellow

in Fall 2006 Newswire, Jill Connor, Kendra Gilbert, New Hampshire
November 14th, 2006

Eggers
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
11-14-06

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – There isn’t much New Hampshire native Jeffrey Eggers can’t accomplish once he sets his mind to it. Degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy? Check. Masters degree in mathematics and philosophy from Oxford? Check. Lieutenant Commander in the Navy with a tour of duty in Iraq? Check. One of only 14 selected nationally to a prestigious White House Fellowship? Check.

Sewing machine repair expert? Maybe not.

Eggers’ mother, Barbara, still laughs about the time her mechanically curious three-year-old son dismantled her sewing machine.

“He wanted to see how things work,” Barbara Eggers said, recalling the incident.

“She doesn’t let that one go,” Jeff, now 35 and just as curious, said. “She still accuses me of being the reason that her sewing machine never worked right.”

Although his curiosity may have killed, or at least injured, the sewing machine, Eggers’ parents, who live in Chichester, agree that it’s their son’s inquisitive nature, not drive, which has taken him so far in life; all the way to the White House, in fact.

“Driven is not a word I would use to describe Jeff,” Barbara Eggers said. “He’s very curious, involved in different things and wants to learn more.”

When asked if he agrees with his mother’s description, Eggers replied, “I think that’s a very astute observation. Coming from my mom, she’s going to be the one most qualified to make such a careful observation.”

Eggers’ father Jim, a retired Air Force officer, noted that “there’s not much mechanical that Jeff won’t tackle or try to understand. He will take things apart just to see how they work.”

The parents and son have a mutual respect for each other.

Eggers said his father, as a military officer, “made a deliberate attempt, somewhat to the sacrifice of his career, to put his family first.” Eggers’ younger sister Jennifer, 33, is a doctor who now lives with her husband, Ashish Chaudhari, and son, Cole, 2 1/2-years-old in Concord.

“That afforded us the ability to stay in New Hampshire for grades Kthrough12 and gave both my sister and I a lot of stability, which is unusual for military kids,” Eggers said.

Eggers was a “very good student,” in elementary and middle school in Durham and later in high school at Phillips Exeter Academy, according to his mother, who is on a one-year sabbatical from the elite prep school after several years of being dean of the faculty there.

“I was aware that he did well in school and was pretty smart,” said Eggers’ sister, Jennifer. “I tried to copy that to some level, but he was much smarter in math and building airplanes and wind tunnels and I wasn’t really interested in that. I was more interested in biology. We had different interests, but he was someone that I thought I should be like in terms of being smart and working hard.”

Added Jeffrey Eggers: “We were raised in a household that really respected and put a lot of attention on grades and academic pursuits. My father really planted and fostered and grew an intellectual and academic curiosity in both my sister and I.”

With “above-average” schooling, which Eggers said was made possible by his mother’s teaching jobs, Eggers was accepted into several prestigious colleges, both military and civilian.

Although he had already accepted admission to Stanford, Eggers had a change of heart after what he said was an “epiphany” that finally connected his desire to become a naval officer with going to a naval college.

“He went right down to the wire in making that decision,” Barbara said.

Eggers said he had to call Stanford and say, ‘I was kidding. I’m going to the Naval Academy.’ ”

As a laid-back kid with long hair, Eggers found the initial transition into the Naval Academy difficult.

“All of a sudden I shaved my head and was getting barked at and marching around,” he said.

After the initial shock wore off, Eggers found normalcy in athletics and other extra-curricular activities. He played ice hockey throughout his four years at the academy, something that had been a part of his life as far back as he could remember.

“Our whole family was on the ice rink from an early age,” Eggers said. “My father was an ice hockey referee. My mother was a figure skating coach. My sister was a figure skater. And I was an ice hockey kid. We had a pond next to our house that would freeze over in the winter. On weekends, it wasn’t uncommon that all four of us would end up with ice skates on our feet at some point.”

Dave Ismay, who met Eggers while they were both in their second year at the Naval Academy, said Eggers was a “natural athlete.”

Going away to Annapolis deprived Eggers of the stability with which he grew up. After graduating with a degree in aerospace engineering, he went to England for two years on a Navy scholarship to study mathematics and philosophy at Oxford.

It was another abrupt transition, but also a “rich and rewarding experience that was a contrast from the experience of the Naval Academy, which even in the classroom is very rigid,” Eggers said.

Then, “literally the day after I finished my last exam at Oxford, I flew to San Diego and reported for my first training command there,” Eggers said.

His sister traveled from New Hampshire to San Diego to see her brother.

“If we have the opportunity to be close, there wasn’t a question about whether or not we’d be there,” Jennifer said. “I was definitely excited to be there and see him.”

From there, Eggers’ military career would take him around the world, to places like Southeast Asia and Hawaii, where he was able to put his mechanical skills to good use doing research and development on a mini-submarine for the Navy’s special operations community.

Eggers remained in close touch with his family in New Hampshire. Packages and letters from home started arriving while he was at the Naval Academy and “continue to this day,” Eggers said.

In April of last year, Eggers was deployed to Iraq as commander of the Naval Special Warfare Task Unit assigned to train Iraqi soldiers and police officers in the Anbar province.

“It was a mother’s worst fear,” Barbara said, of her son’s deployment to Iraq. Eggers often talked with his parents about friends killed in the Navy.

Although Eggers knew the task of training entire police and army units would take years, he said that in his seven months in Iraq he witnessed “small tactical victories.”

“We were able to watch certain Iraqi units that we’d spent the whole time with go from being unable to organize to be organized, trained, equipped and led to conduct their own independent operations,” Eggers said. “That was very fulfilling.”

And the packages from home continued. “I would drink a lot of coffee over there to stay awake,” Eggers said. “And most of it was supplied fresh by my parents.”

His parents welcomed him home in October, 2005, flying out to San Diego to see him.

Although Eggers admits that he never really thought of a career in the Navy when he first reported for training after completing his Masters degree from Oxford, he now recognizes how much the Navy has given him.

“It’s been a continual string of very rewarding and exciting opportunities,” he said.

The latest of which is his fellowship at the White House.

“I’m still working in the government, but it’s a very different kind of work – wearing a suit everyday instead of a uniform,” said Eggers, who is assigned to the National Security Council. “It’s a very unique opportunity that not a lot of people get to enjoy.”

Now, he said, he looks forward to those “rare opportunities I have to wear my uniform and stay in touch with my Navy community.”

Throughout the application process, Eggers looked to family and friends for advice.

None of his close friends or family was surprised by Eggers’ decision to apply. And the only person who was surprised when he was selected was Eggers himself.

“I don’t think it felt like it was actually happening until I got here,” Eggers said.

Eggers talked with Ismay throughout the process, sharing some of the other applicants’ impressive bios with him. But in Ismay’s mind “it was a no-brainer. Jeff was by far the most attractive candidate,” he said, noting that his best friend is “freakishly high achieving.”

As with past challenges, Eggers faces the duties of his fellowship and his placement with the National Security Council, where he serves as director for weapons of mass destruction terrorism, maritime security, hostages and special operations in the Directorate for Combating Terrorism, head on.

In that position, he helps Stephen Hadley, the national security advisor, and shapes U.S. policy by working with federal departments and agencies to check for consistency with other existing programs and initiatives and to ensure that resources are properly deployed to achieve national strategies.

Eggers said he enjoys the fellowships’ “well-rounded approach to leadership” that has allowed him and the 13 other fellows to meet with senior officials in all branches of the government.

While he was appointed by President Bush, Eggers has yet to actually meet his commander in chief. He and the other fellows will get their chance in December when they sit down with the president.

And while they are excited for their son, Barbara and Jim Eggers, who now call Chichester home, have other reasons to love his appointment to the White House Fellowship.

“This is the first time the family’s been in the same time zone in 13 years,” Barbara said. “So he’s going to come home for Thanksgiving.”

It is a trip Eggers also is looking forward to.

“There’s something very pleasant and enjoyable about New Hampshire in the fall,” he said. “So the holidays are particularly nice to go home to. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a white Christmas.”

But for right now, Eggers is looking forward to a Thanksgiving with his family and his mom’s home cooking.

####