LTC Jacob Capps, Ph.D.

LTC Jacob Capps is a fifth-year academy professor in the Core Physics program with the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering at the United States Military Academy. He graduated from Tuskegee University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering. He commissioned as an aviation officer and was selected to fly OH-58A/C and UH-60 helicopters. He subsequently served as a platoon leader and assistant operations officer with the 2nd Battalion (Air Assault) 10th Aviation Brigade at Fort Drum, New York. 

Following the Aviation's Captains Career Course, he served as the current operations G3 Air in 1st Corps Headquarters Section and took company command at 16th CAB in Fort Lewis, Washington. LTC Capps subsequently served on USFOR-A HQ in the G-3 Air office and finalized his aviation career at the 7TH Infantry Division Headquarters before attending graduate school for the second time. His final operational unit was at the Pentagon as a strategic planner in the G-3/5/7 DCGS office. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Northcentral University and later earned another Master of Science in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School. 

His research and thesis work involved creating a photo-counting spectrometer to characterize the photonic response of heavy oxide inorganic scintillator crystals to detect fast neutrons. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from Oregon State University, where his research focused on the application and validation of Geant4 modeling for optimization of complex structures for fast neutron detection.

LTC Capps’ deployment history includes Afghanistan (2006-07) with the 10th CAB (Combat Aviation Brigade), and Iraq (2009-10) as the Corps' current operations G3 Air Battle captain, and Afghanistan (2012-13) at USFOR-A Headquarters.

LTC Capps is originally from Seattle, Washington. He and wife Melissa have six kids, Calista (21), Amir (20), Libiya (12), Solomon (10), Keeda (11), and Marcus (12). His interests include soccer, basketball, reading, weightlifting, and running.