Thomas A. Cropper

Thomas A. Cropper, is a retired United States Navy rear admiral, who after his retirement from the Navy, was installed as President of California Maritime Academy on July 1, 2012 where he was appointed with the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Maritime Service.

Education
Cropper is a 1981 graduate of Iowa State University. He also earned master's degrees in from the University of Tennessee and Catholic University of America. He is a distinguished graduate of the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

Operational Assignments
Upon his graduation from the Iowa State University, Cropper entered the Navy as an ensign. During his thirty-one-year Navy career, he served in a variety of command and staff positions. He was designated a naval aviator in 1982, followed by operational assignments with 3 aircraft carrier-based jet squadrons. He went on to serve as the commanding officer of a F/A-18 strikefighter squadron and as commander of the air wing aboard USS NIMITZ. Cropper has embarked on eight extended deployments in USS America (CV 66), USS Forrestal (CV 59), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Eisenhower (CVN 69), and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and flew nearly 5,000 hours in 43 different aircraft while logging over 1200 carrier arrested landings.

Ashore
Cropper attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, served as a military assistant in the Office of Secretary of Defense William Cohen, and as the Navy Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He also led “Strike University” at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, served as chief of staff, U.S. Third Fleet, and headed the Joint Chiefs of Staff Working Group chartered with the development of national level security strategy.

Flag Officer Assignments
As a flag officer, Cropper served as Deputy Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, leading and managing over 24,000 people in combat operations as deputy commander, U.S. Naval Forces, U.S. Central Command. as well as Commander, Strike Force Training Pacific, where he directed education and at-sea training for Navy ships and aviation squadrons deploying to the Western Pacific and the Middle East.

Retirement
He retired from the Navy at the rank of rear admiral in 2012 and soon after assumed the duties as the California Maritime Academy President.

President of California Maritime Academy
The fourteenth person to hold this post since the institution’s establishment in 1929, RADM Cropper heads an institution with a student body of some 1100 midshipmen and a waterfront campus covering more than 89 acre. California Maritime Academy, is located in Vallejo, California, approximately 30 miles from San Francisco, California. It is one of the nation’s prime sources of licensed merchant marine officers and is renowned for its maritime education and training programs. California Maritime Academy a component of one of 23 campuses in the California State University system and is one of only seven degree-granting maritime academies in the United States and the only one on the West Coast.

Military awards
Rear Admiral Cropper's personal decorations include:

Navy

 * US-OF1B.svg Ensign: 1981
 * US-O2 insignia.svg Lieutenant Junior Grade: 1983
 * US-O3 insignia.svg Lieutenant: 1985
 * US-O4 insignia.svg Lieutenant Commander: 1990
 * US-O5 insignia.svg Commander: 1996
 * US-O6 insignia.svg Captain: 2002
 * US-O7 insignia.svg Rear Admiral: 2007

Maritime Service

 * US-O8 insignia.svg Rear Admiral: July 1, 2012