Terry “Tetris” Francis

In civilian terms, he was a director of supply chain, transportation, and operations: accountable over his career for government property and contracts valued in the billions, from vehicles, aircraft, and weapons to building and service contracts; responsible for procurement, operating budgets, audit readiness, and financial liability investigations, and a trusted advisor to commanders on the logistics behind every deployment.

His Army training ran from supply lines to the Special Warfare Center, where he studied persuasion, audience analysis, and mass-media communication, the same skills he now uses to help brands reach the culture honestly.

At Redstone Arsenal’s NCO Academy he secured more than $300,000 to renovate its graduation hall, and off duty became the youngest president of the Community Action Agency of Huntsville and Madison County.

He served in the historic 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, which carries the lineage of the original Buffalo Soldiers, and deployed with it to Iraq attached to the 27th Brigade Support Battalion. He earned the Stetson and both his combat and garrison spurs, and proudly calls himself a Buffalo Soldier.

When the brigade stood up, he was its first supply sergeant, inventorying and transferring thousands of weapons and vehicles, and its only government purchase card holder, from stand-up through the deployment. In Iraq he went in with the advance party and received more than $25 million in property.

He rose to senior logistics NCO, the S4 NCOIC, for four units: the 27th Brigade Support Battalion after Iraq; the 1st and 3rd Psychological Operations Battalions at Fort Bragg; and the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, which he took to Afghanistan. With the PSYOP group he was accountable for more than $40 million in special operations equipment and fielded $500,000 in critical systems in a single month.

Twice selected as a Casualty Notification and Assistance Officer, including for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, he stood with Army families at their hardest moments, from a death notification alongside a chaplain to the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base and a full-honors funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.

Logistics also meant moving people: buses and troop transports for airborne operations, rental vehicles for missions, and Army licenses to drive 5-ton tractor-trailers and 45-passenger buses, HAZMAT qualified.

It meant weapons, too. Tetris was a certified unit armorer, trained and authorized to repair weapons beyond what the individual soldier is allowed to do. He maintained, inspected and repaired the unit’s small arms and crew-served weapons, from the M16, M4 and M9 to the M249, M60, M240B, M2 .50-caliber and MK19, and ran arms room security and accountability.

Decorations Army Commendation Medal (6 awards) · Army Achievement Medal (3) · Army Good Conduct Medal (4) · Iraq Campaign Medal with two campaign stars · Afghanistan Campaign Medal with campaign star · NATO Medal · Korea Defense Service Medal · Global War on Terrorism Service Medal

Professional military education Primary Leadership Development Course · Advanced Leader Course · Manager and Supervisor Development Courses · Special Warfare Center studies in psychological operations, civil affairs, and the law of war

His Apple story started in the Army: he equipped the 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion, the Army’s print and broadcast unit, with Macs while most units still ran on Windows.