“That’s what friends are for,” Dionne Warwick and her friends Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight sang in their 1985 mega hit. Two friends, who are also colleagues and veterans, are taking that seriously. Until the end of April, they worked side-by-side and then, quietly, but concurrently, retired.
Bradley R. Steely (Brad), Peachtree City’s newest citizen, is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Training Academy’s Management and Administration Division chief. His best friend and associate is Marvin L. Reese, the NCIS Training Academy’s Training Operations Division chief.
While Steely manages the Academy’s day-to-day administrative and policy functions, fiscal operations and accreditation approaches, Reese oversees the development, review and monitoring of approximately 3,200 individual training sessions each year.
Together they are responsible for the execution of multi-year, multi-million dollar Academy budgets. The NCIS Training Academy is located aboard the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Brunswick, Ga.
Steely joined the NCIS staff in 2005 and relocated to Brunswick from the NCIS Headquarters in Washington where he was the Agency Program Coordinator for the Government Purchase Card Program. Reese joined the Naval Investigative Service in July 1985.
Both Reese and Steely are honored military veterans with numerous meritorious service decorations and awards between them.
Steely, a retired U.S. Navy commander and designated surface warfare officer hails from Laurens, S.C. He served in various afloat and shore positions throughout the Mediterranean and Atlantic as well as in North and South Carolina, Washington, D.C., Rhode Island, Virginia, California and Louisiana. He holds the U.S. Navy master training specialist designation.
Reese, a Marysville, Calif., native, served in Iraq, Italy, Republic of the Philippines, Hawaii, Arizona, Missouri and South Carolina and was the sole NCIS special agent assigned to the 1996 Olympics and Special Olympics in Atlanta.
Steely joined his wife, Becky, and his parents, Herb and Betty, in Peachtree City at the end of April where his priorities have become spending time with family, playing plenty of golf, getting to know the neighbors and the neighborhoods by way of golf cart and becoming a part of the Peachtree City community — but not necessarily in that order. The Steelys have one daughter and a son-in-law with two grandchildren who live in Charlotte, N.C.
Reese, and his wife Reta (who is from Quitman, Ga.), plan to retire in Brunswick where family and golf will become priorities. They have five children (three of who live in Atlanta suburbs) and three grandchildren.
Both pals plan to take in a few rounds together as often as they can in retirement. After all, that’s what friends are for.
