JONATHAN L. PATONJonathan Paton was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. He grew up on Tucson’s east side in what is now Legislative District 30. He graduated from Sabino High School in 1989. During his senior year in high school he dreamed of seeing the world. He worked at Marie Callender’s restaurant as a busboy and saved up the funds to go to Germany as a Rotary exchange student. His year abroad in 1990 was an important time in Germany’s history. He watched the Berlin Wall fall and took with him the images of people experiencing freedom for the first time.
He returned home and began his studies at the University of Arizona. In the coming years he would spend more years overseas studying in Almaty, Kazakhstan with the Sister Cities Program, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet in Munich as a Rotary Foundation Scholar and in Moscow through a program administered by the University of Arizona. One of his most important experiences, however, occurred in Arizona when he interned with the Arizona State Senate in 1995.
Jonathan Paton graduated from the University of Arizona summa cum laude and with honors in German and Russian in 1996. He continued on to the graduate program in German at the University of Arizona.
In 1999 Jonathan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. He served in the 5-104th Military Intelligence Battalion at Ft. Huachuca. He was named “Soldier of the Year” for his battalion, brigade and eventually for the entire 104th Division in 2000. After becoming instructor qualified and being promoted to sergeant, he received his commission as a second lieutenant.
In 2005 after his first year in office, he was called
up for active duty for six months in a new Army program called the Basic
Officer Leadership Course, which combined infantry training at Ft. Benning,
GA with military intelligence training at Ft. Huachuca. He graduated as
class leader of the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course in January
2006. He continues to serve as a 1st lieutenant and a qualified 35-Delta
all-source intelligence officer.
In 2001 Jonathan began a political consulting firm in Tucson called Paton & Associates. He has worked with numerous clients in state and local races as well as on initiative campaigns. After his promotion to First Lieutenant, Paton volunteered for active duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from September of 2006 until February 2007. Based at Camp Slayer in Baghdad, he served as operations officer for the Joint Intelligence Operational Capability - Iraq under Multinational Forces Iraq. As operations officer he oversaw logistics of intelligence equipment fieldings, training and maintenance throughout the CENTCOM Theater of Operations. His duties took him to many different cities and forward operating bases in Iraq including Al Asad, Bukka, Fallujah, Mosul, Tikrit, Baghdad and Balad. He conducted assessments of intelligence operations and escorted top secret intelligence equipment through Iraq. His work was essential in keeping valuable intelligence assets operational for targeting insurgents throughout theater. Besides politics and the military, Jonathan is still interested in languages.
His hobbies include reading, brewing beer (we are not sure if anyone has
ever survived a taste-testing or not), working-out and writing.
EDUCATION
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
EMPLOYMENT
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Bill Number | Sponsor Type | Short/NOW Title |
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HR2002 | P | Virginia Tech; honoring those killed |