Ken Armstrong’s campaign is becoming a breakaway phenomenon. Not since Harry Truman has any presidential candidate taken a campaign so truly to the people. But people have the right to ask, “How can Ken truly consider himself qualified to serve as President of the United States?”
Here is the simple answer: In the past forty years, there has only been one president-elect with more experience in federal government, diplomatic relations, or national defense. (That president-elect, just for the record, was George H. W. Bush.)
Ken brings to the table a background rich in those experiences, and a management style of surrounding himself with brilliant people who excel in their subject areas, and then equipping them to do their jobs.
Ken was born in Pasadena, California. At seventeen, he was assistant manager of one of the largest cinemas in Los Angeles County, and at eighteen, he was working on the Alaskan Pipeline, some 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
He would later enlist in the United States Coast Guard, and quickly go on to become a commissioned officer. He served in joint commands with all five military branches, commanded a NATO base in Italy, and was a NATO and United Nations adviser aboard foreign naval ships during the Bosnian War. When Hurricane Iniki devastated the island of Kauai, he was immediately assigned by Rear Adm. Bill Donnell to command the Coast Guard’s humanitarian response.
He was a principle architect, in finance and logistics, of major international joint service operations under the auspices of Vice President George H. W. Bush, and he served outside of his specialty as a federal health care executive, working with U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. (Dr. Koop would ultimately recognize Ken’s expertise in health care management by nominating him to become the first Coast Guard line officer to be granted full membership in AMSUS — the association of federal health care professionals.)
During a significant human smuggling case in the Pacific, he led international media relations in coordination with the White House Situation Room.
He served as representative to the Pelagie Islands for the U.S. Consul General at Palermo.
As a joint service military officer, Ken was certified on the Enhanced Naval Wargaming System at Point Loma, California. He received Coast Guard and Navy training and was assigned in littoral defense operations, mine warfare, and inshore-undersea warfare. He also attended highly classified training under the auspices of the FBI and CIA in Management of Terrorist Situations.
He was a heavily decorated officer, and was nominated as Federal Executive of the Year by the Federal Executive Board of Los Angeles.
In addition to federal service, Ken was twice elected to the Honolulu County Neighborhood Board. He served at one time as Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity’s Hawaii Statewide Organization, and both Oahu affiliates, substantially increasing the productivity of those organizations. He had a brief, successful career in real estate (he says he just didn’t like it), and he was a weekly columnist for Pacific Business News, among other things.
He is a graduate of U.S. Coast Guard Officer Candidate School, and a Weinberg Fellow of Hawaii Pacific University.
On May 10, 2019, he announced that he is running as a Libertarian candidate for President of the United States.