Congratulations to the 2023 Distinguished Alumni-Captain Chris Adams
Chris will address this year's graduates on Saturday, May 13.
Captain Chris Adams, a 1992 CHS grad, attended the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science Honor Degree in History (with Distinction) and commissioning as an officer in the Navy. He then served on the guided missile cruisers USS MOBILE BAY (CG 53) and USS PORT ROYAL (CG 73) in a succession of operations and combat systems related duties while deploying throughout the Western Pacific, North Arabian Sea and Arabian Gulf areas of operation and directly supporting OPERATIONS NOBLE EAGLE and ENDURING FREEDOM, to include serving as the operational center for the air defense of Hawaii on September 11, 2001. Later in his career at sea, Captain Adams would command the guided missile destroyer USS STETHEM (DDG 63) and serve as the Deputy Operations Officer and Maritime Operations Center Director for the U.S. Navy’s SEVENTH Fleet aboard the forward-deployed command ship USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC 19). Ashore, while serving as the Deputy Air and Missile Defense Officer at U.S. Pacific Fleet, he was privileged to lead major planning and execution elements of OPERATION BURNT FROST, a successful Presidentially-directed mission to intercept and destroy the disabled satellite NROL-21 and its toxic 1,000 pound hydrazine fuel tank with an SM-3 missile launched by a Navy guided missile cruiser. After serving as the Professor of Naval Science at both Northwestern University and the Illinois Institute of Technology, he was selected to serve as the Director of Officer Development with responsibility over the Department of the Navy’s Naval Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and several other Navy and Marine commissioning programs at 169 universities and colleges across the United States with an average yearly student population size of more than 6,500 and an annual budget of well over $150 million.
Captain Adams is a graduate of the Naval War College (College of Distance Education), with a Master of Arts Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies (with Highest Distinction). His personal decorations include the Legion of Merit (2), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (2), Navy Commendation Medal (4), and Navy Achievement Medal as well as 8 Sea Service Deployment Ribbons. He has been most happily married to Rie (Nagai) Adams of Yokohama, Japan since 1999, with whom he shares great pride parenting to two young adults. Throughout his career he has been privileged to work with superb Sailors and Marines and to have been a member of teams earning the:
· Spokane Trophy in 2002, recognizing USS PORT ROYAL as the most proficient ship in combat systems readiness in the Pacific Fleet
· Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Memorial award in 2012 recognizing USS STETHEM as the most battle-ready ship in the Pacific Fleet