December 16, 2016
Colloquium Topic: Reflections of a Carrier Aviator from 1980 to 2016
In his talk, VADM Fox will describe the journey from analog to digital in carrier aviation (with some sea stories and combat hops to illustrate.)
Colloquium Speaker: VADM Mark Fox
Vice Admiral Mark I. Fox, USN (ret.) is corporate vice president of Customer Relations for Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), responsible for developing and implementing customer engagement efforts across the company. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Fox joined the HII team in 2016 after a 38 year Navy career. His last assignment in the Navy was as deputy commander, U.S. Central Command. In previous executive leadership assignments, Fox commanded U.S. Naval Forces, Central Command/U.S. FIFTH Fleet headquartered in Bahrain; served as Deputy CNO for Operations, Plans and Strategy (N3/N5) in Washington, D.C.; commanded the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center in Fallon, Nevada; commanded Strike Group 10 aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75); served as deputy assistant to the President and director of the White House Military Office; commanded Carrier Air Wing 2 aboard USS Constellation (CV-64); commanded Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 122, the Navy’s first FA-18E/F Super Hornet Squadron; and in the late 1990s, served in the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs, where he worked on procurement of USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) and the FA-18 E/F Super Hornet.
He has logged 1349 arrested landings on 15 different aircraft carriers, almost 5,000 mishap-free flight hours and flown over 100 combat sorties. Combat highlights include scoring the first Navy MiG kill of Operation Desert Storm on 17 January 1991, and leading the opening strike of Operation Iraqi Freedom on 21 March 2003.
Military awards include Defense Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Navy Distinguished Service Medal with gold star, the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross with combat ‘V’ and the Bronze Star with gold star.
A native of Abilene, Texas, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1978 and was designated a naval aviator in 1980.