Former · Feb 2025 – Jun 2026
Tulsi Gabbard
Director of National Intelligence
Youngest legislator in Hawaii history. Combat Medical Badge in Iraq. First Hindu in Congress. First Samoan American with a House vote. Then the intelligence community.
- On the file
- 4
- Of 13
- 9
- The building
- Out
Career
Awards, firsts, the work
Hawaii’s youngest legislator, at 21
Born in Leloaloa, American Samoa. Raised in Hawaii. Dropped out of community college to run, and won. Youngest person ever elected to the Hawaii House, and at the time the youngest woman elected to any U.S. state legislature. She left the seat for Iraq.
SourcePBS NewsHourCombat Medical Badge, Iraq
Enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard in 2003. A twelve-month tour with a medical company, 2004–05, under fire in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Combat Medical Badge is the one that says the tent was not in the rear. Later Kuwait, training counterterrorism units. She is a lieutenant colonel.
SourcePBS NewsHourFirst Hindu, first voting Samoan American in Congress
Hawaii’s 2nd district, 2012. House Armed Services. Foreign Affairs. The intelligence subcommittee. A Democrat who quit the DNC vice-chair to back Sanders, opposed regime-change wars, and eventually left the party. The firsts are not the politics. They are the biography.
SourceEncyclopaedia BritannicaDirector of National Intelligence
Confirmed February 2025. Eighth DNI. Born in American Samoa, a Pacific first at the cabinet level. She ran the intelligence community until June 12, 2026, then left. The file still counts the sixteen months. The medals still hang.
SourceDel. Amata, press