Shawn Cantlin

As a high school senior in Otisville, Michigan, Shawn Cantlin ’82 aspired to attend West Point. He had the required nomination from his US Representative and an interview lined up, but decided he didn’t want a military career. 

Cantlin applied and was accepted to Michigan Tech, Michigan State, Michigan, and Central Michigan. It was Tech’s good reputation that convinced him to come north.

“I had heard good things about Tech. Originally, I thought it was in Houghton Lake,” he joked. “Tech was the last school to give me my acceptance. I figured if they’re evaluating me this long, I would take it if they offered.”

Although Cantlin initially decided not to pursue a military career, a cold call from a Michigan Tech ROTC cadet prior to the first semester changed his mind again. He signed on, following the footsteps of his father, who had served as an Army infantry officer.

“I really took to it,” Cantlin said in reference to joining Army ROTC. “It was a great experience.”

On campus, Cantlin lived in Wadsworth Hall all four years. As a chemical engineering major, he fondly remembers learning from Professor Myron (Doc) Berry. Away from class and ROTC, Cantlin recalled Winter Carnival and broomball as favorite pastimes. 

“I played hockey in my youth, and was big, slow, and not a good skater. That translated well to broomball.”

Cantlin graduated and was commissioned into active service in the Army in 1982. His first assignment was as a brigade chemical officer with the 7th Engineer Brigade in Germany. His functional area was nuclear weapons, and he assisted with some training exercises and served as a nuclear release authentication systems officer for the brigade’s nuclear capable unit.

After 18 months of serving as a platoon leader for a chemical company supporting 7th Corps in Europe, the Army sent Cantlin to graduate school at the University of Illinois. He earned a master’s in nuclear engineering in 1988.

His follow-on utilization assignment was at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, where he worked on designing nuclear weapons.

In 1992, during an arms drawdown with Russia and former Soviet Union countries, President George H.W. Bush removed all the tactical nuclear weapons from the Army’s stockpile. “There wasn’t a whole lot for me to do anymore. The Army offered a voluntary separation incentive to leave active duty, but I was required to join the Reserves.”

Cantlin joined the Corps of Engineers to fulfill his reserve duty obligation and eventually retired from the Army in 2004 as lieutenant colonel, but he continued to work for the Livermore Lab in the area of counterterrorism. While at Livermore he joined the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, which provides technical support to the nation’s radiological and nuclear emergency response operations. 

Cantlin’s additional duties included working as technical support to counter nuclear smuggling activities by the US government. He traveled around the world to help evaluate alleged samples of nuclear material and render judgment so local government authorities could decide what to do with it.

Following the terrorist attack on 9/11, Cantlin was called to Washington, D.C. to serve as a nuclear expert for counter weapons of mass destruction operations. He served there for three years before returning to the Livermore Lab. He served in and led the Counterterrorism and International Assessments programs within the Lab’s Z Program that are responsible for analyzing foreign nuclear weapons programs and threats. He retired in 2023.

Cantlin credits his Michigan Tech experiences and education for helping him throughout his career. 

“ROTC taught me a lot about leadership and how to get things done right and honorably. It prepared me for the Army but also for my leadership roles at the Laboratory.

“From a technical point of view, I got a very solid engineering understanding that helped me as a scientist and engineer. Lawrence Livermore is pretty demanding scientifically, and I was able to build on what I’d learned at Tech.”

Interview conducted as part of the Oral History Collection during Military Service Appreciation Weekend, hosted by the Office of Alumni Engagement, May 2–3, 2025.