Summer 2022 - Alumni Story Scott Meehan

Scott Meehan

SCOTT MEEHAN

A TALE OF SERVICE, ESPIONAGE AND COURAGE

One thing that many of SCOTT MEEHAN’s ’89 former classmates and professors may not know, is that during his time at Southeastern, Scott was working undercover. With a 25-year career in the U.S. military, Scott’s plethora of experiences have led him into several, almost movie-like situations, ranging from his espionage during the Cold War to his connection to the capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Scott initially enlisted in the United States Army Special Forces in 1980, three years after his high school graduation.

“I knew I needed something challenging in my life,” Scott recalled. “When I learned about what the Green Berets do and heard about their work with indigenous people, it reminded me a lot of what I did with my parents on the mission field.”

Originally from Baltimore, Md., Scott was in second grade when his father first received the call to missions. This led their family on a journey traveling state to state and preparing for the mission field internationally for many years, including learning Spanish in Costa Rica and completing jungle training in Mexico. It wasn’t until Scott was in 10th grade that his parents got their first assignment in Colombia in 1973.

By the time Scott was in the midst of his training for the Green Berets, his parents had wrapped up their four-year term in Colombia and were reassigned to the Amazon jungles of Ecuador. When he was presented the opportunity to take some time off, he traveled to see them. Little did he know, he would be meeting his future wife on his trip.

“Staying right next door to my parents was this school teacher on a two-year short-term mission. I knew after the first week that she was the woman the Lord had for me,” Scott reminisced.

Scott met TRENA (BASS) ’76 in March of 1981, and by October of that same year, they were married. Trena went on to teach in both public and private schools for more than 30 years. Within that time period, she also served as a principal for 15 years.

Later down the road, Trena would be the one to encourage Scott to attend Southeastern. When Scott officially enrolled at the university as a part of the ROTC program in conjunction with Florida Southern College, he had already served seven years in the Army. At this point, Scott was 29 years old with one child in kindergarten and another in preschool.

Scott and Trena moved their family to Lakeland, Fla., and Scott began earning his degree in education. However, a college degree wasn’t the only thing Scott was pursuing at the time. “Although I couldn’t say anything back then, the entire three years I was at SEU, I was a civilian working undercover,” Scott revealed.

Prior to his family's move, Scott had been stationed in Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Before he had left, he was approached by a Russian KGB officer attempting to recruit him for military intelligence. “He wanted me to return to Germany as an asset for the Russians,” he remarked.

Scott informed the American officials of the offer, and thus began his covert correspondence. Army Intelligence sent him to East Berlin at least once a month, until he departed for college and became a civilian. Once that transition took place, Scott was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“Once a month, I would meet with an agent from the FBI in Tampa, and we would go over the latest intel that I had received from the Russian officer,” he said.

Scott with his wife, Trena, and their children at his commissioning in 1989

On one occasion, the FBI sent Scott back to East Berlin alone during Christmas break for an in-person meeting with the Russian. When reflecting on the specific trip, Scott recognized the danger involved but was consoled within his spirit that it had a divine purpose.

He emphasized, “The Americans had their agenda. The Russians had their agenda. But God had his own agenda.”

When meeting with the Russian officer, they would usually exchange gifts over dinner. This time, Scott felt led to bring him a brand new Bible and inscribe a few scriptures in the front. Thinking back to a previous conversation that they had about God, Scott remembered the Russian mentioning he knew of the Lord from his grandmother but didn’t necessarily believe.

Towards the end of their visit, Scott handed the Russian the Bible and told him, “I believe that this is what your grandmother would want you to have.”

Training for the Special Forces

He continued, “I’ll never forget it — he grabbed the Bible and held it close to his chest and said, ‘I always wanted one of these.’”

Scott with Condoleezza Rice

When Scott’s train arrived at the station to transport him back to West Berlin, the Russian bypassed his handshake and gave him a big hug instead.

Scott recalled, “Once I was on the train, I heard an audible voice say, ‘Well done thy good and faithful servant, your mission is complete.’ And somehow, I knew at that moment that I would never see him again. And I didn’t.” A year later, the Berlin Wall came down, the Cold War ended and the Russians went home.

“I believe God’s agenda was to ensure that a Bible was delivered straight into that man’s hands,” he said.

Scott would not officially re-enter the military until the year after his graduation from Southeastern in the summer of 1990, rejoining the Army as an officer.

In 2003 when Saddam Hussein and many members of his leadership first went into hiding, Scott was serving as a contingency contracting officer in Iraq. His main purpose in this position was to hire Iraqi locals that could supply the necessary services and supplies for his troops. In order to accomplish this successfully, Scott made it a point to reach out to them culturally.

“This is one of the things I did differently from other officers in contracting. I would take the time to learn a bit of their language and the proper greeting before trying to secure their business,” he commented. “I was able to establish a trust-based relationship with a lot of vendors.”

The word on Scott’s trustworthy nature began to spread, and it wasn’t long before many of the locals would come to his base and ask to speak with him specifically. It just so happened that one of these individuals requested to meet with him and revealed that he knew two men in Baghdad who had some high-level intel relating to Hussein. “He told me that they didn’t trust the Americans, but he trusted me,” he said.

Preceding this meeting, Scott had made an intentional prayer to the Lord. “I knew that we had to get Saddam. He was stirring up a lot of chaos, even in hiding. I remember praying to the Lord, ‘If there’s any way you can use me as an instrument to help — I’m willing,’” he noted.

Scott and Trena

Scott was able to convince the man to bring his two contacts to his base, and they disclosed information pertaining to a safe house in Baghdad where some of Hussein’s men were rumored to be hiding. Upon this revelation, Scott connected the two men with his friends in military intelligence. Ten days after this transpired, Hussein was captured and brought out of a spider hole.

Scott and Trena attend the Military Intelligence Ball in 1993

Scott confessed, “I heard about Saddam’s capture all over the news, but I hadn’t thought much of it. It wasn’t until my friend in intelligence told me that the safe house I’d learned about had Saddam’s personal driver in it that I realized the connection. They were able to get the driver to reveal exactly where he was hiding.”

“It all boiled down to having that Christian spirit and reaching out to the local people,” he recognized. “The key was creating those cross-cultural relationships.”

Scott continued contracting for the government until his last stint in 2005. “By the time I decided to retire, I had kind of lost sight of my teaching degree,” he explained. “I sort of took a roundabout way to get to where I think God wanted me all along.”

His first teaching opportunity came to him in the form of a small college, and then eventually, he would earn his current full-time position with Windy Ridge K-8 School in Orlando, Fla. Scott teaches sixth grade computer applications in business; seventh and eighth grade audio, video and communication arts technology; and eighth grade digital information technology.

Outside of the classroom, Scott also dedicates time to writing. In addition to an autobiography detailing his career in the military, Scott has self-published six novels and three short stories. Spanning from science fiction to romance, Scott has projects in multiple genres, pulling from a combination of his own past experiences and his imagination. Tying all his works together, is a mutual theme of spirituality. Whether it’s exploring the topic of the end times or using his books’ characters to answer the common questions he’s heard from people of differing religions, Scott makes it a priority to integrate his faith into his writing.

“I aim to get diverse people to see Jesus,” Scott said. “They’re going to see him in a different way than we might think traditionally, which is why it sometimes requires unconventional means.”

When Scott’s not teaching or writing, he’s most likely spending quality time with Trena, their two children and six grandchildren. Together, they enjoy visiting Cocoa Beach and vacationing at Orange Lake Resort.