He has jumped from airplanes, conducted counterterrorism operations during the Cold War and trained as one of the first U.S. sky marshals.Ron Wells is not the average sociology professor.Wells is one of the leading terrorism experts in the state, and he shares his knowledge with University students every Thursday night in his class, the “Sociology of Terrorism.”In his crisp, white, button-down shirt and worn, camel-brown leather jacket, he radiates confidence, but he didn’t become a terrorism expert lecturing in front of a blackboard.The Gonzales native currently is the Director of Research & Development with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Department and the head of its counterintelligence unit.  He is also the director of Training and Development for the Southern Anti-terrorist Regional Training Academy in Carville, La.Wells was drafted into the army in 1968, shortly after receiving his engineering degree from LSU. He had no stance on the Vietnam War, he said, and his days of drinking and having fun in Baton Rogue were ending. Wells was caught off guard when he received his draft card. He decided to sign up “to avoid infantry or a bullet.”  He soon was receiving counterintelligence training, though he never pursued it. “It’s not one of those things you join for. They come and find you.”Wells trained for 20 months across the country, including at Fort Benning and Fort Bragg.  He attended the Defense Language Institute in California and gained survival training in Panama. By 1970, he was in Germany conducting counterterrorism operations.He was brought back to United States to learn about a new type of terrorism: airplane hijacking. To counteract the hijackings of U.S. air carriers, the military acted as the first sky marshals on transcontinental and inter-continental flights in Europe. “About 10 to 15 of us were pulled out of Berlin and pulled into Quantico Virginia for six months,” he said. Fortunately, Wells never had to act on his new training on a flight.Once enough civilians were trained, Wells began counterintelligence operations based in Berlin. “When you’re running covert operations, your job is trying to find these people and locate where they’re at,” Wells said, without specifics. “You’re working networks and trying to find out who they’re working with.” Wells and his fellow intelligence officers began focusing on the Black September organization, the Palestinian militant group responsible for the kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer during the 1972 Olympic Summer Games.He first heard about the attacks through his communications radio while investigating cargo suspected of containing weapons at the Munich airport. His first reaction wasn’t pleasant. “We’re in that business, so the first reaction is somebody slipped through, somebody went through,” Wells said. “But we weren’t the only country doing what we were doing. We didn’t take full responsibility, and it wasn’t our country to start off with.”Wells said his team immediately started communicating with the Israelis and the Germans. “Some teams went out, and ultimately there was a conflict out at the airport and one at the stadium, where most of the terrorists got killed,” he said. “Some were killed at the stadium and some at the airport. I was at the airport.”Wells finished his military service in Europe, but in 1974 he returned to Baton Rouge. He started an engineering company specializing in products for military and law enforcement. After 16 years, he sold his business and entered the world of academia and local law enforcement. He earned his Ph.D in sociology and currently splits his time lecturing at the University at night, working with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office and the training institute in Carville.    “His passion is contagious,” said Stacy Wise, mass communications senior. “He is extremely educated on any material he presents to the class, not necessarily just on terrorism. He is well versed on anything that he talks about, actually.”Because of his intense career, Wells said he enjoys the interaction with his students more than ever.”I hope I bring that same passion I have out in the field I bring it into the classroom. Enticing people to do something interesting with their lives, that’s just fun, and it gets more rewarding as I get older.”–Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]