Ty “Yoda” Cunningham, retired Supervisory Deputy US Marshal & Tactical Commander, was born and raised in the remote recesses of Alaska’s Capital City, Juneau. Living his life through wilderness pilgrimages into the remote harsh mountains nearby as well as up and down the inland waterways of bush Alaska. This led him to be an action-bound yet reclusive warrior philosopher with his martial training, in tracking, survival, and defense, from the age of 3 from his father—a martial arts expert, Infantry Sergeant First Class, and in his aging years a spiritual patriarch. Ty was naturally an amalgamation of his father and mother, who emigrated to Alaska in the mid-1950s with her family from a remote mountain village on the Swedish/Norwegian border.

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Ty’s modus operandum of living was and always will be to naturally gravitate to remote, reclusive, and harsh living environments perpetuating reclusive monk-like lifestyle conditioning, e.g., standing in freezing water to harden the mind and body to thrive in cold shock response, toughening his body and mind with sleeping on the cold, wet, and hard ground, using trees and stones as conditioning instruments to harden his spirits resolve to endure any circumstance, not bringing commercial food to the bush to forage and eat only what nature provides, and tracking Alaskan Brown Bear step-by-step to feel their power deep within his spirit. This conditioning then crossed over by even creating these methods of discipline when in built-up areas around many people far from his Alaskan home, e.g., sleeping on the hard floor instead of a soft bed even if it is available, gravitating to a remote corner of a room to find solitude amongst the resonating noise, not eating for extended periods to maintain a hunger ache from which to control the time for food in a world of too much food, or disappearing to a local park and sitting on a tree branch to find seclusion amongst the concrete jungle around him.

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"Life to me is about maintaining this platform of discipline over mind, body, and spirit," Ty teaches.

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This way of living gifted Ty with astute capabilities in severe survival, protective defense, the ability to read the details of all living things encrypted in a track, and the uncanny ability to live within arguably one of the harshest most unforgiving places on Earth. This upbringing in bush Alaska gave him a unique view of living and dying that served him well in the US Army, US Marshals Service, as a Village Public Safety Officer, and Tribal Police Officer where he not only served with distinction but assisted in establishing rural law enforcement programs, e.g., Tribal Rangers to target land and game violations off-grid, scout tracker units for tactical, search, patrol, crime scene, and forensics, as well as voluntary assignments to patrol the remotest places where back up was most often a long plane ride away. These living preferences of seeking outlying, grim, and deadly places in nature far from support instead of the comforts of modern living only perpetuated the Yoda name and individual call sign and the assignments he was given and the assignments he later crafted as mission multipliers for the US Marshals Service.

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Namely,

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The first assignment Ty crafted was building what he called the “US Marshals Police Dojo,” which was just a mat room that could be used for what he called, Federal Marshal Combatives, or Modern Police Jujitsu, of which he holds a red belt level. This was approved by the Alaska Police Standards Council (APSC) and was taught to any officer wishing to plus up their skills in street survival. This room still exists as the original mat room with improvements and is attached to the US Marshals fitness center.

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The second assignment was a coordinated placement between the presidentially appointed US Marshal and the FBI Special Agent in Charge. Therefore, Ty tried out for the Anchorage FBI Regional SWAT Team. After passing entry requirements and successful completion of SWAT school training, he became the first non-FBI Agent in the nation’s history. His US Marshals Yoda nickname became his call sign on the team to join the likes of his teammates, Two Butts, Buzz, Pinhead, & House. As a member of the FBI SWAT Team, he mobilized to many national deployments in support of counter-terrorism and special high-risk warrant efforts. He also participated in many tactical and special activities training, thus preparing for any call-outs.

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The third assignment was creating, building, selecting, training, and commanding two US Marshal Scout Tracker Units. One for the District of Alaska (1998-2012) and one for the District of Wyoming (2003-2006). The Alaska US Marshals Scout Tracker Unit was officially called the Special Warrant Detail (SWD)-Tactical Tracking Unit (TTU) and was set up with one four-man team of all Deputy US Marshals. The Wyoming US Marshals Scout Tracker Unit was officially called the Special Warrant Detail (SWD)-Mounted Tracking Unit (MTU) and was stood up again with one four-man team comprising three Deputy US Marshals and one US Secret Service agent. Both teams cumulatively were called to assist on hundreds of cases by federal, state, municipal, tribal, military, and non-government agencies, and organizations.

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The fourth assignment was being selected nationally to represent the US Marshals Service at the prestigious military college in 2010 and in writing his acclaimed master's thesis, Forensic Spoorology, at the US Army Command and General Staff College earning him a distinguished graduate award and a terminal Master of Military Art & Science degree.

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In conclusion, Ty’s Yoda call sign was perpetuated throughout his career like a brush fire consuming prairie grass hastening everywhere and roundabout. Not only by his achievements but everywhere he was assigned, he was greeted by fellow workers with, “Is it true that you are called Yoda?” or “I hear you go by Yoda.” Or “Hi, Yoda.”

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Ty, through his upbringing in the wilds of his Alaska home, his harsh training, strict conditioning, and life experiences, not only grew into an austere warrior sage like the mystical fictional character, Yoda, but he also came from an ancestry that physically led to genetic Yoda like ears and hair, giving him the balding nature that exposed wildly in his younger years sporadic hair segments poking up and out around his famed ears the more his hair receded. So, when he walked into the US Marshals Office in Alaska for the first time in the spring of 1991 as the newest Deputy US Marshal, the senior deputies who observed him for the first time exclaimed the utterance that fueled his nickname and individual call sign evermore:

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“That guy looks like Yoda!”