About the Principal

THE PRINCIPAL

Tom Baker IV

Twelfth-generation North Carolinian. Born and raised in Wake County. Left at 18. Shaped by war.

Ten years in the U.S. Navy — airborne signals intelligence, flying nationally tasked collection missions for the National Security Council and combatant commanders worldwide. Then: UAS Mission Commander embedded with joint special operations forces, running ISR against terrorist networks targeting a nation’s elections. Qualified as a Naval Forward Air Controller and graduate of the Joint Firepower Course — trained to call lethal fires from a forward position, in the field, in real time, responsible for where the ordnance lands. Held Level C SERE certification — the classification reserved for personnel operating beyond the wire in hostile territory.

After leaving active duty: contractor support to SEAL platoons and Special Forces ODAs across multiple theaters and multiple wars, accumulating 1,000+ flight hours providing direct ISR against the most dangerous networks in the world. That work took him to the edges of the operational map — the places that don’t appear in press releases, against adversaries who understood exactly what was at stake.

Stateside, the same discipline applied to a different operating environment. Research Director on a competitive congressional race. Investigative journalist and founder of Wake Forest Matters, a local accountability outlet covering government and civic institutions in Wake County. Four years as North Carolina State Lead for Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative — designing and running NC-ISAN, a statewide threat monitoring and rapid-response network that protected election workers, journalists, officials, and civic organizations across three election cycles. Advisor to the NC Election Protection Coalition. Called on as a subject matter expert by academics, coalitions, and public institutions across the state.

Ground Truth NC is the direct evolution of that work. Not a consulting firm. Not a think tank. Intelligence tradecraft, applied where it is needed most.

The credentials and the deployments say one thing clearly: Tom Baker does not stop.

He has operated in environments where being wrong costs lives, where the conditions are hostile, the information is incomplete, and quitting is not an option. He has been trusted to make lethal decisions in real time, in the field, under pressure that most people will never encounter. He has done that work at the outermost edge of the operational world, with the most demanding warriors this country produces — and he kept pace.

That is the same person who shows up to do this work. The question is never whether he will find the truth. The question is what you plan to do once he does.