Local man has a frontline role in fight on terrorism
Major Zeigler collects, analyzes security info for a federal agency.
By Lawrence Budd, Staff Writer
Monday, September 12, 2011
TROTWOOD ? Major Zeigler was a one-time walk-on for the Ohio State Buckeyes football team, a decorated soldier injured while serving his country in Iraq and overcame an illness that shut down his kidneys and liver to become one of Ohio?s key figures in the fight against terrorism.
Zeigler has dedicated his adult life to public service, and today the Trotwood native plays a crucial role in a little-known federal office formed to collect and analyze intelligence information about crime and terrorist threats in the aftermath of 9/11.
He is the regional intelligence coordinator of the Northeast Ohio Regional Fusion Center in Cleveland, a three-year-old agency that monitors activities with law enforcement agencies in Cuyahoga, Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga and Lorain counties.
On the 10th anniversary of the attacks, Zeigler, 32, said Americans need to remain vigilant and alert, and mindful that the heightened security at airports and other public facilities is for their continued protection.
?The way terrorist organizations, extremist organizations work, they like historic dates,? he said. ?That kind of heightens the stakes.
?There are people that don?t like us. They don?t care about killing civilians.?
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