He defended his dissertation, “The Airborne Mafia: Organizational Culture and Institutional Change in the U.S. Army, 1940–1965,” in February 2023. His work analyzes the creation and transmission of one subculture to the larger Army bureaucracy, and its impacts on Cold War institutional development. Rob argues that a maverick group of World War II airborne officers cemented a unique set of values, beliefs, and norms and that as these officers ascended to the highest ranks of the army, they transmitted this culture throughout the army in four major ways—strategic formulation, preparation for perceived atomic combat, helicopter airmobility, and strategic response forces. This research demonstrates the capacity for a tactical subculture to have an enormous effect on its parent organization as well as national strategic strategic policy during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. To do so he analyze the efforts of Generals Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, James Gavin, and their acolytes. Exploring the development of a distinctive airborne mindset through the lens of organizational culture, "The Airborne Mafia" shows that this tactical-level subculture thrust its leaders to prominence and undergirded significant strategic, tactical, and cultural changes during the Cold War that have an important legacy to this day.

Rob earned a BA in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018, and an MA and PhD in history from The Ohio State University in 2020 and 2023 respectively.

Selected Publications

• “All Blood Runs Red: Triple Nickle Paratroopers Jump Start Integration (pdf document),” Proceedings of the Ohio Academy of History Annual Meetings 2020-2022, October 2022.
• “STRAC: U.S. Army Strategic Response Forces and Maintaining Relevance in the Atomic Age” On Point: The Journal of Army History vol. 27 no. 3 (Spring 2022): 35–44.
• “The Development of Airfield Seizure Operations in the United States Army,” Military Review Online Exclusive, (November 18, 2021). 
• “Bring Back The Sightseeing Sixth: The Case For An Arctic Division,” Modern War Institute, December 14, 2021.
• “Renaming Southern Army Bases is Nothing New,” Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, January 18, 2021.
• “The “Triple Nickles”: Jim Crow Was an Elite Black Airborne Battalion's Toughest Foe.” History News Network, September 6, 2020.