LTC Jacob Capps

Jacob Capps is a fifth-year academy professor in the Core Physics Program with the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering. He graduated from Tuskegee University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering. He commissioned as an Aviation Officer and selected to fly the 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, NY. 

Following the Aviation Captain’s Career Course, he served as the current operation’s G3 Air in 1st Corps Headquarters Section and took Company Command at 16th CAB in Fort Lewis, WA. He 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 PhD 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 (02/2006-02/2007) with the 10th CAB (Combat Aviation Brigade), and Iraq (01/2009-01/2010) as the Corps current operations G3 Air Battle Captain, and Afghanistan (07/2012-07/2013) at USFOR-A Headquarters.

LTC Capps is originally from Seattle, WA. He is married to Melissa and has 6 kids, Calista (21), Amir (20), Libiya (12), and Solomon (10), Keeda (11) and Marcus (12). His outside interests include soccer, basketball, reading, weightlifting, and running.