Colonel (Retired) Spencer Clouatre is a former West Point Academy Professor and Special Operations Aviator.

Spencer started his military service as an enlisted Soldier in the summer of 1988 and then transferred to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1991. After four quick years, he graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and received a commission into the Army as an Aviator.

Spencer’s operational career as an assault helicopter pilot has been in support of light infantry and special operation forces. He holds the Senior Aviator Badge with ratings in numerous airframes (Kiowa, Black Hawk, Little Bird, and Chinook). Spencer is a graduate of US Army Ranger School, Airborne School, Air Assault School, and the United States Marine Corps’ Amphibious Warfare School. He has six total deployments with task forces from the XVIII Airborne Corps and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Night Stalkers) in support of Stabilization Forces (SFOR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in Iraq, and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in Afghanistan.

Spencer’s academic career started with his first teaching assignment in the Social Sciences Department at West Point from 2004-2007. He returned to West Point in 2016, earned promotion to Academy Professor and served as the Program Director for Economics through 2022. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University (2004), a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College (2011), and a PhD in Business Administration from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2016).

Spencer and his wife Jill started dating one month after his initial enlistment in 1988 and were married directly after his graduation from West Point in 1995 – they are now in their 35th year as a couple. They have three adult children, a daughter in law, and a new grandson in their expanding family.