The National War College (NWC) of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council on military matters. The composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is defined by statute and consists of a chairman (CJCS), a vice chairman (VJCS), the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the chief of the National Guard Bureau. Each of the individual service chiefs, outside their JCS obligations, works directly under the secretaries of their respective military departments, e.g. the secretary of the Army, the secretary of the Navy, and the secretary of the Air Force.
The Naval War College is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associated roles and missions, supports combat readiness, and strengthens global maritime partnerships.
Edmund Peter Giambastiani Jr. is a retired United States Navy admiral who served as the seventh vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2005 to 2007. He retired in 2007, after 37 years of service.
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a public graduate school operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California.
Leon Albert "Bud" Edney is a former United States Navy officer. A native of Dedham, Massachusetts, he retired from the navy as an admiral after serving as Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1988 to 1990.
Michael Glenn Mullen is a retired United States Navy admiral who served as the 17th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2007 to September 2011.
James George Stavridis is a retired United States Navy admiral and vice chair, global affairs, and a managing director-partner of The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, and chair of the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation. Stavridis serves as the chief international diplomacy and national security analyst for NBC News in New York. He is also chair emeritus of the board of directors of the United States Naval Institute and a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Kurt Walter Tidd is a retired United States Navy admiral. He last served as the Commander, United States Southern Command. Prior to that assignment, Tidd served as Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also served as the Director for Operations, Joint Staff (J-3) from 2012 to 2013, and as Commander, United States Naval Forces Southern Command and United States Fourth Fleet from August 5, 2011, to June 22, 2012. Confirmed by the Senate on December 16, 2015, Tidd received his fourth star and succeeded John F. Kelly as commander of United States Southern Command on January 14, 2016. Tidd held the title of "Old salt", which means he received his qualification for Surface Warfare before any other active-duty navy officer. He passed said title to Admiral Philip S. Davidson upon his retirement. Upon the May 30, 2018, retirement of his United States Naval Academy classmate, Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., Tidd also gained the honorific of "Old Goat" – the longest-serving Naval Academy graduate on active duty. Harris presented Tidd with the Old Goat decanter in a ceremony on April 11, 2018.
Joseph Devereux Kernan is a retired United States Navy vice admiral and the former under secretary of defense for intelligence. His last military assignment was serving as the military deputy commander of the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), Miami, Florida, from May 23, 2011, to September 2013. He was the second-in-command of one of nine unified commands under the Department of Defense.
Ann Elisabeth Rondeau is a retired United States Navy vice admiral. During her tenure in the navy, she received two Defense Distinguished Service Medals, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, and four Legion of Merit awards. Rondeau was the president of National Defense University and, after serving as the president of the College of DuPage, was chosen by United States Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer to be president of the Naval Postgraduate School in 2019.
Lee Fredric Gunn is a retired Vice Admiral and former Naval Inspector General of the United States Department of the Navy.
Rear Admiral Nevin Palmer Carr Jr. is a retired U.S. Navy admiral who served as Chief of Naval Research.
James Franklin "Frank" Caldwell Jr. is a retired admiral in the United States Navy who last served as director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, a job once held by the program's creator, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. He previously served as Naval Inspector General.
David Folk Baucom is a retired United States Navy Rear Admiral. Among Baucom's military roles were White House military aide to the president, director of the US Central Command Deployment and Distribution Operations Center in Kuwait, commander of Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, commander of Fleet & Industrial Supply Center in Norfolk, Virginia, and strategy and policy director of the US Transportation Command. Baucom is currently senior director at Vintun LLC.
Craig Stephen Faller is a retired United States Navy admiral. A 1983 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a native of Fryburg, Pennsylvania, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering. He earned his master's in national security affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1990.
Edward Joseph O'Donnell was an American naval officer. He commanded the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base from December 1960 to 1963, during which the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred. He then served as senior navy member of the Military Studies and Liaison division at The Pentagon and superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School before retiring as a rear admiral in 1967. After retirement, O'Donnell was president of the New York Maritime College until 1972.
