Verbout retires from Air Force

“My life has been a series of failures that I’ve been able to persist and be successful,” he shared.

Though he’s put in years of time, dedication and service…though he’s been a part of top secret intelligence assignments…though he’s been part of an elite club of the U-2 spy plane, only flown by a select few…and though his career has been one of major accomplishments, awards and decorations, Jeremy Verbout is as humble as they come. 

Before we get to the “SEAL” side of things – let’s go back a bit.

Jeremy Verbout is a 1995 graduate of Grygla High School and is the son of Dennis and Sherry Verbout. With no military presence on either side of his family, he recalls his love for fighter planes at an early age. “I remember telling Mary Rindahl, my first grade teacher at Gatzke Elementary School, that I wanted to fly fighter planes for the Air Force,” he laughed. “That was just my thing. I knew without a doubt that I’d do that, regardless of what anyone else said.”

In what would be the first military member of his family, Jeremy set out to conquer those dreams, which sent him soaring to the edge of space.

Right out of high school, Jeremy headed to Iowa State University as he was interested in a Bio Chemistry degree, and also their basketball program. (At the time, they were rebuilding and openly looking for walk-ons.) While there, Jeremy found out they had a great ROTC Air Force program and decided to head in that direction. At the end of his first year, he looked for the best opportunity to move forward on that path. At the time, the two primary aviation schools were located in Grand Forks, ND, and Daytona Beach, FL. He was accepted into the UND Aerospace program, which back then, it was brand new and very small with only five students total. The group was assigned under NDSU, but just before Jeremy’s senior year, they got their own ROTC detachment. While helping to build that program, he completed his four years, earning his Bachelor of Science in Air Transportation in 2000. 

Jeremy recalled how his four years at UND prepared him for what would be an incredible career with the United States Air Force. “The first year there was figuring out what I wanted to do. The 2nd year is prepping for Basic Training and understanding the military. That summer after is when you go to Basic Training, which was done in Westover, Mass., then you go back and sign a contract saying you are now an enlisted member of the Air Force and part of the military. Then you have your last two years to formally prep you for becoming an officer. 

At the end of Jeremy’s UND days, he was a commercial instructor pilot. The next step in the Air Force, was being sent to Navigator School. This was the first of many assignments. From July 2000-May 2001, Jeremy was sent to Randolph AFB, Texas, for Navigator Training. At that point, he was able to choose the RC-135 Intelligence platform, which does measurements and signals intelligence, to name a few. With this, would come a move to Fairchild, Washington, where Jeremy would go through survival, POW and resistance training. “They teach you how to survive in the woods, how to get through “prisoner of war” training and how to resist interrogations and things like that,” he shared. “They try to break you and look at your loyalty to the government as if it was a real situation where if you went down as a navigator behind enemy lines, how would you save your life, resist the enemy and not give up classified information.”

This true-to-life training, which included being put in a 55 gallon drum for a long period of time, prepared him for his next move to Offutt AFB in Nebraska where he would spend the next three years as a Navigator on the RC-135 Cobra Ball, which was one of the airplanes used for signals intelligence. He was also a civilian flight instructor at the Offutt Aero Club, teaching other Air Force members and civilians how to fly. Jeremy also got his Master’s Degree in Aero Space Operations and Human Factors while at Offutt, which is also where he met his now wife Stephanie, who was originally from Anoka, MN. 

While in Nebraska, Jeremy got picked up for pilot training due to how many hours he had flown and his experience. The selective Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training brought him to Sheppard AFB, Texas, for about a year, where the primary focus was learning how to become a fighter pilot. Jeremy flew the T-37 Tweet and T-38 Talon, both of which are jet trainers where he flew with NATO partners as the class leader for the Americans, the Germans, Dutch, Danish and Norwegians. No missions at this point, but just figuring out how to fly military fighter-type aircraft. At this point, Jeremy could pick a fighter, bomber or a trainer; he was lucky enough to get his first choice, which was an F-15E Strike Eagle. At this point, the Verbouts were married with their first child, living off base. After more than a year there, the family then moved to Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina, where another 10 months of training took place to learn about the missions, the weapons, the capabilities of the airplane, how to operate as a formation and a unit, and how to work with your other entities. 

As the trend would continue, the family would be moving again. This time overseas to RAF Lakenheath, England, where according to Jeremy’s official biography, it states: Director of Staff, F-15E Fight Lead, 494th Fighter Squadron, from April 2007-July 2010. At this point, Jeremy was flying (and leading) the Strike Eagle operationally, and was on call, doing missions. Two trips to Afghanistan took place in 2007 and again in 2010 that were four months long each, where he was deployed to Bagram Air Base to offer support to the men and women on the ground, and to the establishment of the country. Jeremy also went to Romania, Sweden, Spain and a couple trips to the United States. “A lot of deployments and a lot of flying. I could talk for days just about my time out of Lakenheath,” he shared. 

While in England, Jeremy and Stephanie’s second child, Troy, was born. You can gather how many times the family was making their way around the globe. Jeremy explained that he was gone a lot and it was starting to take a toll on his family life. After accomplishing his goal of flying fighter planes, an opportunity presented itself when the U-2 program reached out to him. Soon after, he was hired and a part of that elite U-2 community based out of Beale AFB, California. 

The U-2, nicknamed “Dragon Lady” is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by only a select few. This is truly an elite club in which Jeremy was a part of, flying operationally for about 12 months. He flew out of Osan Air Base in South Korea and United Arab Emirates Al Dhafra, supporting combat operations. While in the middle east, Jeremy was supporting troops on the ground with signals intelligence and imagery intelligence, etc. While in South Korea, he was doing what’s called SRO – Sensitive Reconnaissance Operations, which are generally directed by the United States Secretary of Defense.

It was this experience within U-2 program that brought Jeremy even further in his career – to the Pentagon. His biography says it best: August 2012-July 2015, U-2 Program Element Monitor, Headquarters Air Force, Pentagon, Virginia.

If you want to see a long list of incredible accomplishments, take a look at that professional biography, which includes another position at the Pentagon in 2018/2019 as Chief, Joint Readiness Division, Headquarter Air Force, Pentagon, Washington D.C. 

With many moves, titles and assignments under his belt, the Verbouts made another move overseas in 2016 to Cyprus where Jeremy was Commander, 1st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron.

While there, Jeremy commanded 138 people, a number of airplanes and a 45 million dollar operation, all the while flying 17,000 hours over two years and negotiating/signing the first ever international agreement. This was the best experience out of his entire 20 years, according to him. 

After Cyprus, Jeremy went back to the Pentagon for a year doing Air Force readiness and working with leaders in preparation for another war. He was also hired to go work at DARGA in the DC area where he was a deputy program manager for experimentation, working classified programs for the Department of Defense. 

It was all of this (and MUCH more) that brought him up to 20 years of service. Lt. Col. Jeremy “SEAL” Verbout (SEAL is his call sign. All fighter pilots earn one, usually by doing something stupid. SEAL stands for “shoots early, aborts late”) decided it was time to move home and retire from the United States Air Force, which was effective November 1st, 2020. With the option to go to another commander position and be promoted, Jeremy decided to pursue retirement. “We would have had to move again and I’d know exactly what my career would look like,” he explained. With moving about every 1.5 years thus far, the Verbouts wanted to call Minnesota home. 

Jeremy and Stephanie have three kids. Erika is 14, Troy is 11 and Samantha is 8. With years of living all over the globe, the family has settled down in the White Bear Lake area and are all feeling thrilled to be back home in Minnesota, closer to family!

Jeremy has visions that include starting his own companies and a potential run for political office – national or executives within the state of Minnesota. He says, “I’m interested in helping Minnesota. I love the population here. This state has hard-working, honest and good people. I came back to help the state and represent those people amongst so much divisiveness and a lack of honor and respect.” When asked to provide advice for dreamers like his younger self, he stated, “People give up on their dreams entirely too early. Come up with logical steps to get there. We live in the freest, most prosperous country in the world – we have limitless opportunities. Nothing holds people back but their personal mind set.”

Let’s take a look at some of the items on Jeremy’s professional biography.

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters

Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters

Aerial Achievement Medal with one oak leaf cluster

Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster 

Air Force Achievement Medal with oak leaf cluster

Afghanistan Campaign Medal

Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal

Global War on Terrorism Service Medal

Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal

Also included on bio:

Lt. Col. Jeremy D. Verbout retired from the United States Air Force as the Deputy Program Manager for Experimentation at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Adaptive Capabilities Office, Alexandria Virginia. He supported DAPRA’s Assault Breaker II program development of an all-domain, multi-level security, constructive, virtual and live joint experimentation environment within the Vanguard Force DevOps Environment in San Diego, California.  Additionally, he was the Joint All-Domain Command and Control liaison to the Department of Defense coordinating Assault Breaker II programs efforts and technologies with Joint partners.

Colonel Verbout entered Air Force as a graduate of the University of North Dakota and is a graduate of Undergraduate Navigator Training and Undergraduate Pilot Training. He served as a Training Officer, Tactics Officer, Chief of Mobility, Deputy Chief Wing Inspections, Squadron Director of Staff, U-2 Program Element Monitor, and Squadron Director of Operations.  He completed his Commander assignment at the 1st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron (aka Project Olive Harvest), Royal Air Force (RAF) Akrotiri, Cyprus. Prior to his position at DARPA, Colonel Verbout served as the Chief, Joint Readiness Division, Director of Training and Readiness, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters Air Force, Pentagon. 

Colonel Verbout is a Navigator and Senior Pilot with more than 3,100 flight hours and 830 combat hours in the T-43, RC-135U/S/W, T-37, T-38A/C, F-15E, and U-2S. He has flown combat missions in Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and Inherent Resolve and Secretary of Defense directed Sensitive Reconnaissance Operations mission globally.

The following is part of what Melissa Gould, Jeremy’s sister, shared in honor of his recent retirement:

“Jeremy has always been an excellent example of a true patriot. He has immense respect and love for God, country, and human rights and dignity. Whenever you ask Jeremy about how he feels about our country, military, and service men and women you can see pride and emotion in his eyes immediately.”

Thank you for your service to our country, Jeremy, and Happy Veterans Day.