Meet Your Instructor, Brad Cornali
After graduating from Penn State University in 1996, Brad served as a Marine Corps officer for 10 years. He then spent some time in Corporate America before returning to a life of protecting his country by becoming a Federal Air Marshal (FAM). Brad was assigned to the Detroit Field Office, where he flew domestic and international missions to detect, deter, and defeat threats to civil aviation. Additionally, he spent a year on the Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) Team, providing protection to all modes of ground-based transportation in and around the Greater Detroit Area of Operation. He was eventually selected to be an instructor at the FAM Training Center located at the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His primary discipline was defensive measures (combatives), but he also instructed newly hired FAMs in firearms, mission tactics, and physical fitness. After his tenure at the Training Center, he was assigned to the Philadelphia Field Office, where he returned to flying status and was also part of the instructor cadre. During Brad’s 7+ years as a FAM, he flew over 1.3 million air miles and trained over 500 Air Marshals.
Brad eventually headed back to his home state of Pennsylvania and took a position as a State College PD police officer. After 4+ years as a patrol officer in the town surrounding Penn State University, he had the opportunity to return to his passion – being an instructor as a Law Enforcement Training Specialist at the Pennsylvania Sheriff and Deputy Sheriff Academy. During his three years with the academy, he instructed all the state’s newly hired deputies in firearms, defensive tactics, control techniques, and patrol procedures.
Brad is now a Security Police Officer at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, an assistant wrestling coach for the Christian Academy of Knoxville, and a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer. He is married to his beautiful wife of 28 years, Kristi, and is the father of an amazing daughter, Mia.