Candidate: Doug Underhill

Doug Underhill is a 27-year "Mustang" (prior enlisted) Officer in the US Navy, currently serving as the Commanding Officer of a Reserve Cryptologic and Intelligence unit in Greensboro, NC.  He was elected to the Escambia Board of County Commissioners by the citizens of District 2 in 2014 and served as the Chairman of the Board from November 2016 to November 2017.

Doug is the son of a Navy Senior Chief and grew up at various Navy bases at home and abroad.  He was a student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville when the first Gulf War broke out.  The war compelled him to enlist int he Navy in 1991, and he subsequently reported to Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA for Arabic language instruction.  Upon completion of training, he transferred overseas, where he flew Airborne Reconnaissance missions on the EP-3E Orion, ES-3A Shadow, and RC-135 Rivet Joint.  During this tour he conducted operations throughout the Mediterranean, Arabian Gulf, and Adriatic Seas in support of Operations DENY FLIGHT, JOINT ENDEAVOR, and SOUTHERN WATCH on airborne and surface platforms.

He was serving as an Arabic Language Instructor at the National Security Agency's National Cryptologic School at the time of the 9/11 attacks and was returned to flight status within weeks of the attacks.  During workups to deploy to Afghanistan, he was selected for Officer Candidate School and diverted to Pensacola for commissioning.  Here he led a team of sailors working to develop a ground-breaking cyber security program before departing active duty to pursue personal endeavors in real estate development.  He later returned to active duty with US Central Command, where he served as the Cryptologic Officer and dual-hatted as a Senior Intelligence Officer.  He represented CENTCOM's counter-terrorism team at numerous overseas posts and embassies in Europe and the Middle East.

In his civilian role, Commissioner Underhill has taught Joint Cyberspace Planning and Targeting at every Geographic Combatant Command and formed an award-winning cyber security team for the Department of Homeland Security.  During his 16 years living in the Perdido area of Southwest Pensacola, he has served the community as a baseball and basketball coach, served on the Board of Trustees of the Perdido Bay United Methodist Church, and held numerous positions in the Boy Scouts of America.  In 2014, he partnered with a local IT businessman, pulling together a large Community of Interest to create Exercise CyberThon, a unique community-wide approach to cyber security and cyber defense scenario modeling and simulation.

As a Commissioner, Doug has earned a reputation as a strict fiscal conservative with the courage to oppose long-standing traditions of waste and abuse of taxpayer resources.  He serves with the belief that the core functions of county government are Public Safety and Infrastructure.  He has strived to decrease or eliminate wasteful spending to focus on these two critical mission areas.  He believes that government service demands the discipline to respect and cooperate with other elected officials to the betterment of the community, putting People over Politics in everything he does.

In his first term he successfully implemented the Perdido Key Master Plan; procured over $16 million in funding for Bayou Chico; protected our military bases with the Air Installation Compatibility Use Overlay; and created the Pensacola Inlet Management Program, which protects the environmental, military, and commercial interests of our incredible natural resources.  In neighborhoods from Perdido Key to Gulf Beach Highway to Edgewater, from Navy Point to Myrtle Grove and Brownsville, Commissioner Underhill has a track record of putting the interests of the neighborhoods first, protecting them from encroachment and bringing high-impact infrastructure projects throughout the district.

In his second term, his priorities remain the same:  defund wasteful programs and repurpose those funds to public safety and infrastructure issues; implement the Bayou Chico Restoration plan to dredge the bayou; accelerate the Gulf Beach highway/Sorrento Road expansions; and continue to put People over Politics in every neighborhood of District 2.

He is married to the former Miss Wendy Kinton of Hattiesburg, MS, and resides on Perdido Key with his wife and their two sons, Bret and Avery.