Born in 1949, Gordon S. Heddell joined the Army in 1966 and served as a Chief Warrant Officer and a helicopter pilot in South Korea and Taiwan. After the completion of his military service, Heddell earned a BA in political science at the University of Missouri in 1971 and an MA in legal studies in 1975 at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Heddell spent 29 years in the Secret Service. Among her many responsibilities, he spent two years directing investigations of threats against the President and others, two years supervising counterfeiting and financial fraud investigations in Philadelphia, two years overseeing training programs for Secret Service employees, five years involved in protecting Vice-President Al Gore (1993-1998). From 1998 until December 2000, Heddell served as Assisstant Director in charge of the Secret Service’s Inspection and Internal Affairs programs. In 2000, President Clinton nominated Heddell to be Inspector General at the Department of Labor, a position he assumed in January 2001 and held for more than seven years until President Bush made him Acting Inspector General at the Defense Department upon the resignation of Mick Kicklighter in July 2008. During his tenure at Labor, Heddell most notably investigated organized crime, culminating in the May 2008 FBI indictments of almost two dozen members of the Gambino Crime Family, including charges relating to labor racketeering. He was sworn in as Inspector General on July 14, 2009,one year after taking over as Acting Inspector General, and served until December 23, 2011.

 

Official Bio