After the terrorist attacks of September 11, Lippert decided to take the plunge and join the Navy Reserves. He was commissioned in Jan. 2005, serving one weekend a month at the Office of Naval Intelligence in Suitland, Md.

When Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004 and nabbed a spot on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lippert joined his staff as his only senior foreign policy aide. Lippert and Obama became close and traveled the globe together - to Russia on a weapons-inspection trip and in January 2006 to Iraq, where they bunked in Saddam Hussein's pool hall. On their trips, they would play basketball together. They even occasionally shared their size 13 shoes.

Lippert ultimately became Obama's top foreign policy aide on his presidential effort. In that role, he molded the campaign's 300-person foreign policy network into a coherent unit.

The buzz-cut reservist served as a key link between Obama, his campaign and his Senate staff. Lippert accompanied the presidential candidate on three trips abroad and helped write every major foreign policy address. He told Time magazine his favorite campaign moment was watching Obama shoot a three-pointer during his trip to Europe in July 2008.

But Lippert was called up to active duty in the fall of 2007 and went to Iraq as an intelligence officer in the Navy SEALs. It was difficult to leave the campaign "at the time when ... you kind of want to rally around" Obama, he told Newsweek. Lippert recruited Denis McDonough to replace him while he was away.

When he returned in the fall of 2008, Lippert said his trip gave him a better sense of the tactical struggles in Iraq.

After Obama was elected, Lippert was named chief of staff for the National Security Council. In October 2009, he left his position temporarily to again serve in Iraq and will be replaced by Denis McDonough.

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