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Today's Featured Biography

Jeff Niner

After graduation I ran away from home and joined the Navy...actually, I attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis. There, I ran Cross Country and Track with very limited success and graduated with a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. I headed west to my first ship after graduation and spent much of the next 28 years at sea compiling 10 major overseas deployments of greater than six months and another three years on loan to the Royal Navy teaching at Britannia Royal Naval College in the south of England. I also coached and ran Cross country and Track there winning the England national services championship for hte college for the first time in forty years while setting all my personal bests in events from 400 meters to 10 km. Oh yeah, in 1985 I also married Kate whom I'd met four years before in Hong Kong. We just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in August.

I retired from the Navy in 2006, having visited 87 countries on five continents. I got a masters degree in International Security Affairs and Strategic Studies in 1996 and later earned a Federal Executive Fellowship at a private think tank in New York, the Council on Foreign Relations in 2001/2002. We were in New York for 9/11 and for the rest of that incredible year where I learned to love that city and its resilient people.

I commanded a guided missile frigate, USS UNDERWOOD homeported in Mayport, FL and was fortunate to be able to visit Baltimore while the captain of the ship in 1998. There we received 9,000 visitors a day, including Chey Winkler, Dick Steigleman (my hero) and others who found it difficult to believe I'd been trusted with 453 feet of American steel and 250 Sailors of my very own! I later was Commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21 homeported in San Diego, CA commanding eight destroyers and frigates while also performing duties as the Sea Combat Commander for the JOHN C. STENNIS battle group in 2002-03. After that, I returned to sea as deputy to the Commander of Expeditionary Strike Group THREE and took 6,500 Marines and Sailors to the northern Gulf and Iraq to fight that war in 2003-2004. It was the most rewarding tour of duty in 31 years in uniform. My final job as a Naval Officer was as Deputy Director of the Navy Staff to the Chief of Naval Operations with the window office on the E-ring in the Pentagon and overseeing 2,200 naval officer, enlisted personnel, civil servants and defense contractors.

I retired in April 2006 having steamed around the world ten times and having crossed the equator, international date line, arctic circle a number of times. I enjoyed passages of the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the Mallaca Straits, the Inland Sea of Japan, the Chilean Inland Passage, the Straits of Gibraltar, Straits of Hormuz and the Straits of Magellan. I visited the Phillipine Islands, the Hawaiian Islands, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, the islands of Majorca, Sicily, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, St. Croix, St. Johns, Rhodes, Singapore, Honshu and many, many others. I worked my butt off with lots of sleepless nights chasing Russian submarines, tracking terrorist targets and planning contingencies. It was almost always a tough life where we all adapted a work hard/play harder philosophy. In the end, I owe the Navy my life and my life skills.

My employer is now Lockheed Martin Corporation where I do market analysis and business development in command & control systems, Intelligence/Surveillance and Reconaissance systems and Information Technology. It involves a lot of travel, but it's a living! Kate and I enjoy finally spending time at home in Alexandria, VA after a lifetime at sea and overseas. We've been adopted by the world's greatest dog, Zoe, our 4-year old black lab and we spend as much time as we can cruising our 40-year old Hatteras 53 motor yacht on the Chesapeake Bay (when I'm not fixing or restoring something on it!). Before having ankle surgery earlier this year I was still a competitive mountain biker, even though my running had been curtailed a lot after age 40 due to injuries. Still hoping to come back and ride again!

In all, I'd say that life ain't perfect. Nothing ever is....but mine has worked out so far about as close as anything I could imagine. Can't wait for the second half!

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