About

Zachary W. Speegle is a sixth-generation Appalachian, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and a retired Navy Chaplain. He enlisted in the Marine Corps straight out of high school in 1997, and after the September 11 attacks, answered a deeper call to service — completing his undergraduate degree and then seminary before being commissioned as a Naval officer and Navy Chaplain.

His chaplaincy carried him from the Blue Angels flight demonstration team in Pensacola, Florida, where he served on staff and later as Command Chaplain for the flight school where naval aviators earn their wings, to volunteer assignments with Marine Corps amphibious assault and combat infantry units. In those roles he sat with servicemembers from every background and belief system, present for the hardest moments a person can face.

He retired from active duty in 2017 and went on to earn an MBA, turning the same discipline he had given command relationships and battlefield ethics toward the systems now shaping information, influence, and belief at scale. He lives in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee with his wife of more than twenty-seven years and their four children.

Speegle writes at the intersection of AI ethics, influence architecture, and principled leadership, drawing on two decades of experience with moral clarity under pressure. He is the author of The End of the Sixth Day, out now, with The Invisible Blueprint: The Architecture of Influence, Manipulation, and Ethical Leadership and The Glitch We Share forthcoming.