The son of a career U.S. Navy officer, Lt. Col. Christopher Werle (Ret) grew up in Virginia Beach. A graduate of the ROTC program at Virginia State College, Werle was trained as an engineer and undertook various command and staff assignments in the United States and overseas during his 21-year career with the U.S. Army. He retired from active duty in 1992 and worked another 26 years as an environmental defense contractor before retiring again in 2018.
Work in Kuwait
In 1991, Werle served seven months in Kuwait as the U.S. Department Defense liaison officer to international civilian firefighting teams tasked with extinguishing and capping more than 730 oil wells detonated by retreating Iraqi forces. From April to October 1991, Werle served as the senior environmental staff officer with the Defense Reconstruction Assistance Office (DRAO), where he oversaw U.S. Department of Defense environmental program support for the reconstruction of Kuwait. In his role as liaison to firefighters battling burning oil wells, Chris employed a Combat Engineer Vehicle to fire demolition rounds to detonate and safely remove coke mounds from burning wellheads.
