Posted by Sharon Schendel on Aug 27, 2017
 
Retired NCIS agent Jeff Seay spoke about his experiences that were the basis of his Ruben Carver novel series, of which "The Jihadist List" is the latest installment
 
Retired National Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) agent Jeffrey Seay presented at our August 24, 2017 meeting to discuss his experiences as an NCIS agent, and how he used them as a foundation for his book series featuring fictional NCIS agent Ruben Carver, whose motto is: “You can never have too many friends or too many bullets”. 
 
A San Diego native, Jeff graduated from Helix High School, where Bill Walton was a classmate. He enrolled in Grossmont College as an art major, which didn’t exactly please his father. After discussing the military with a friend, on a whim he went to visit an Army recruiter (having told his father he was going for a job interview) and within a week he enlisted. The decision to enlist, Jeff said, was one of the best decisions he made in his life. The second best decision? Getting out of the Army.  
 
After his military service, he worked for San Diego Marine Construction, but his wife pressed him to seek an alternate career path. He applied to the CIA, and during the application process learned of the NIS, which he thought was the Naval Intelligence Service, but was in fact the Naval Investigative Service that in 1992 was renamed NCIS. Thus he began a 20-year career as an agent for the NCIS, which lists its mission as: “to investigate and defeat criminal terrorist and foreign intelligence threats to the United States Navy and Marine Corps- ashore, afloat, and in cyberspace”. During his service, and particularly after the USS Cole bombing in 2000, NCIS began to focus heavily on counter-terrorism. 
 
Jeff was the mainland China Referent and in that capacity was responsible for advance coordination with the People’s Liberation Army (PLO) in advance of 7th fleet ships arriving in China and other Asian countries. He is also Mansfield Fellow, which allows U.S. federal government employees to gain an in-depth understanding of Japanese government, as well as business, professional and academic activities in Japan. Jeff now splits his time between the U.S. and Japan, where he headed security activities for several financial institutions. Several years ago after his last contract was up, he found himself nearing 60- the mandatory retirement age in Japan. His wife was still working, and he wanted to stay busy.
 
As with his Army enlistment, his writing career began on a whim. He created the character NCIS Agent Ruben Carver and began writing adventures for him. Jeff said that his wife found the draft one day and when she asked: “How does it end?” he knew the book had hope. He self-published the first book of the series, “Carver” in December 2014 and is currently completing the 5th book of the series.  The 4th book, “The Jihadist List” is available through Amazon and other online booksellers. At the recent San Diego Festival of Books he was part of “Author Alley”.  Jeff noted that he enjoyed speaking to Rotary audiences and seeing the different personalities of all the clubs.