HEINSELMAN-JOHN

Excerpts from obituary published in “THE GOLD SHIELD” issued by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Association on April 1, 2015:

A  LIFETIME  OF  SERVICE  TO  HIS  COUNTRY

John David Heinselman was born on June 15, 1958, in the small town of Gallipolis, Ohio, the youngest of three children.  Upon graduating from high school, John joined the U. S. Marine Corps, reaching the rank of SGT before separating.  He then pursued his education at the University of Central Missouri and obtained a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice.  At that time John joined the Navy and was commissioned as an Officer.  As his military career was completed, serving in the Naval Reserves, John attained the rank of Commander. 

John’s passion for defending his country lead him to join the Naval Crimininal Investigative Service,  (then called the Naval Investigative Service)  as an Officer Agent.   John later hired on as a civilian NIS Special Agent in 1987.  John’s career was varied and successful in every endeavor and he was the consummate Foreign Counterintelligence Agent (FCI).  John’s duty stations were in San Diego, Greece,  Naples, Staff Counterintelligence Officer (SCIO) 6^th Fleet, and Camp LeJeune as the SCIO to the Second Marine Expeditionary Force.  John was part of the FCI Team at Naples and a primary member of Operation Red Blanket, the personal NCIS protection service in Italy for senior Navy and USMC officers.  John’s sense of humor and wit along with his dedication to his job, country, mission and lastly, but most importantly, his fellow agents, was admirable.  John’s family accompanied him overseas on many of these moves and they made the family many close friends and memories to last a lifetime. 

John passed away on December 1, 2014, from end stage metastatic lung cancer.  John retired from NCIS by necessity in July 2014 because he was too sick to continue employment.  John had served 27 years with NIS/NCIS.   Most recently John was stationed in Naples but was transferred back to San Diego when he was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer in 2012.  He had been working here at the San Diego Joint Services Task Force and getting his treatments at UCLA/City of Hope, traveling back and forth. 

While John’s career in both the Military and the NCIS were successful and meritorious, his greater identity was in the humility, integrity, compassion, charity, and love which he demonstrated by example.  John is survived by his wife and their three children.  John’s military honors were rendered at the Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego following which, in accordance with John’s wishes, his ashes were scattered in the mountains of Southern California by his wife and children.  

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)