This talk will discuss the role of text data mining in defense applications. Discussions will include, but not be limited to, the role of text data mining in the characterization of country capabilities, its role in the characterization of the state of the art of a discipline area, and its role in discovery. Discussion will focus on the speaker's experiences in this area and his knowledge of the state of the text data mining literature. We also will explore who the customers might be for these techniques and where the future lies, both in the technology and in the important problems that have not yet been addressed.