Biography
About
Gregory D. Lee was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in the suburb of Rosemead, which is just south of Pasadena. He attended San Gabriel High School where he graduated in 1971. He was biding his time, waiting to turn 21 so he could apply to be a police officer when the 1972 draft lottery numbers during the Vietnam War were drawn. His birthday was number one. He immediately enlisted in the army as a Military Policeman and the day he graduated from MP school, the Paris Peace Accords were signed and President Nixon ended the draft. Draftees were inducted up to number 20, so he would have been drafted regardless.
After initially being stationed at Ft. Bragg, (now Ft. Liberty) NC, Greg later became an army CID agent (Criminal Investigator) while assigned as a Military Police Investigator in Darmstadt, Germany. When his Germany tour ended in 1977, he was appointed to Warrant Officer at his next duty station, which was Fort Ord, California. He left active in 1980 as a Chief Warrant Officer 2, and became a police officer in Salinas, California, which is in Monterey County. However, he remained in the Army Reserves.
Greg left the Salinas Police Department in 1981 and lateral transferred to the Pasadena PD when his wife, Virginia, had a job offer in Los Angeles. In December of 1983, he accepted a special agent position with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and served in Los Angeles, Monterey, California, DEA Office of Training at the FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia, Islamabad, Pakistan and was the Resident Agent in Charge of DEA's Karachi, Pakistan office. Greg was then transferred back to DEA's Los Angeles Division where he was a group supervisor the the Orange County resident office. He later was brought back to the L.A. office to serve as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces coordinator. He retired from DEA in December, 2003. Between his careers as a DEA/CID agent, he traveled to over 70-countries on investigations, training assignments, and personal travel.
After initially being stationed at Ft. Bragg, (now Ft. Liberty) NC, Greg later became an army CID agent (Criminal Investigator) while assigned as a Military Police Investigator in Darmstadt, Germany. When his Germany tour ended in 1977, he was appointed to Warrant Officer at his next duty station, which was Fort Ord, California. He left active in 1980 as a Chief Warrant Officer 2, and became a police officer in Salinas, California, which is in Monterey County. However, he remained in the Army Reserves.
Greg left the Salinas Police Department in 1981 and lateral transferred to the Pasadena PD when his wife, Virginia, had a job offer in Los Angeles. In December of 1983, he accepted a special agent position with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and served in Los Angeles, Monterey, California, DEA Office of Training at the FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia, Islamabad, Pakistan and was the Resident Agent in Charge of DEA's Karachi, Pakistan office. Greg was then transferred back to DEA's Los Angeles Division where he was a group supervisor the the Orange County resident office. He later was brought back to the L.A. office to serve as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces coordinator. He retired from DEA in December, 2003. Between his careers as a DEA/CID agent, he traveled to over 70-countries on investigations, training assignments, and personal travel.
Gregory D. Lee
About
Career Army Reservist
Greg retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 5 in 2012, the highest rank obtainable as a CWO, having completed a combined 40 years of active and reserve service. His last tour of duty was a one year active duty special assignment at the Special Operations Command Europe as the law enforcement subject matter expert for the command. February - April, 2011, he was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan to assess the "Rule of Law" phase of General David H. Petraeus' counter-insurgency strategy for the J2 (Joint Intelligence) section of the Command. He created a comprehensive training program for special operators, and taught "Evidence Based" operations at NATO Headquarters.
CW5 Lee with a British soldier at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, 2011.
Expert Witness and Criminal Justice Consultant 2004 - 2023
Shortly after retirement from DEA, Greg authored three Criminal Justice textbooks. He soon was sought after to evaluate criminal and civil cases and opine on police procedures, and he is a State and Federal qualified expert witness. He has since wound down his practice to devote more time to writing.