Photo By National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency | NGA employee Alex Ruffino, Marine Corps reservist, put his Marine values and training...... read more read more
2025 is shaping up to be a momentous year for NGA employee Alex Ruffino.
It’s only June and he’s already experienced an operational win and an event that is most peoples’ worst nightmare.
In February, U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado, needed to leverage NGA’s recent successes in artificial intelligence to assist in their mapping capabilities. NGA’s Warfighter Support Office sent Ruffino, who is also a chief warrant officer 2 in the Marine Corps Reserve.
Ruffino brought his knowledge and expertise as an all-source intelligence analyst to this mission to bolster security at the border.
“I was hopeful my background and prior experience would allow me to hit the ground running,” Ruffino said.
He had no need to worry — as soon as he arrived at USNORTHCOM, Ruffino was immediately integrated into teams to create the southern border common intelligence picture, or CIP, using systems leveraging NGA’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
“They were grateful I came with a lot of working knowledge and expertise to dispel what the system can do,” Ruffino said.
Ruffino helped USNORTHCOM’s advocate for new data integration to ingest data and combine USNORTHCOM and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s intelligence layers into one map.
This was the command’s first time getting a CIP dedicated to the southern border that utilized GEOINT AI.
Within two weeks of Ruffino arriving in Colorado Springs, the Joint Southern Border CIP was ready for the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community and Customs and Border Protection personnel to use to increase their situational awareness.
“I love working for the NGA Warfighter Support Office as a rapid development and prototyping engineer who directly supports the warfighter” Ruffino said.
Then, on his flight home — a flight that made national headlines — Ruffino helped some fellow passengers in need.
Approximately 30 minutes after his flight took off from Colorado Springs March 13, the plane experienced hard vibrations coming from the right engine. Pilots diverted the plane to Denver International Airport and landed there. Once parked at the gate, the right engine caught fire.
Ruffino was seated in an aisle seat on the left side of the airplane parallel to the right engine. Through the airplane windows, Ruffino could see smoke and flames emerging from the engine.
Passengers around Ruffino began to panic and rush for the exits, but there they had nowhere to go — the emergency exits were not open yet. Clouds of black smoke entered the cockpit and began to spread through the airplane cabin.
That’s when Ruffino felt his Marine senses “kick in.” He remained calm and quiet as he looked around and assessed the situation. The thought crossed his mind that he might die from the fire or the smoke, but he knew he must stay calm for his own sake and to help the people around him.
After someone opened the emergency exit door at the rear of the aircraft, Ruffino noticed two parents and their newborn baby sitting across the aisle from him. He saw that none of the other passengers noticed this young family and or considered how difficult it would be for these parents to enter the aisle and exit the plane.
“I knew I had to help them,” Ruffino said.
Ruffino held back some of the passengers so that the parents and their newborn had a path to the rear emergency exit.
“More than keeping my cool, the Marines made me a team player and taught me to help others,” Ruffino said. “I couldn’t live with not helping someone next to me who was in need. It was the only small way I could help.”
Ultimately 12 people were taken to the hospital for minor injuries, but the parents and their baby were not among them.
Asked whether he is a hero, Ruffino laughed and downplayed his role.
He was concerned about the ribbing he might receive from his co-workers.
“My co-workers have already playfully made fun of me a bit for ‘saving a baby,’” he said. “But it should be okay.”
| Date Taken: | 06.20.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.20.2025 11:10 |
| Story ID: | 501124 |
| Location: | COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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