2026 DGA Announcement

He graduated with the Class of 1977 and held leadership positions over a 34-year career as a strike-fighter pilot who flew 77 combat/combat support missions and former slot pilot for the Blue Angels, where he led the transition to the F/A-18 aircraft. He had command of a strike/fighter squadron that won the Battle E for three consecutive years, a Carrier Air Wing, a Carrier Strike Group, NAVCENT/U.S. Fifth Fleet, which led the evacuation of 15,000 U.S. citizens from Lebanon, vice chief of Naval Operations tasked by the White House to evaluate the conditions of detention at Guantanamo Bay, and U.S. Pacific Fleet, where he led the U.S. military response to the Great Eastern Japan earthquake, tsunami and radiation catastrophes.

Post Navy, he held corporate leadership positions for ten years. He is currently president of Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep, providing students from limited economic means with a college preparatory education to become men and women of purpose and service. Through a rigorous curriculum, integrated with hands-on professional work experience, students graduate with a transcript that records rigor and a resume that records accomplishment ready to succeed in life—a formula that begins to chip away at the sins of frustrated potential, lack of opportunity and paralyzing poverty.

He resides in Dallas, TX, with his wife of 37 years, Andy Kaye, who is an active contributor to the non-profit community. Their daughter, Jennifer, is a critical care ICU nurse and son, Matthew, is an investment banking analyst.

Throughout his four decades of service, Fox served with honor, integrity, courage and commitment in positions of highest responsibility, including the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs, the White House Military Office, senior naval officer and chief spokesman for Multi-National Force–Iraq, commanding officer of the first F/A-18 Super Hornet squadron and later of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, commander of Carrier Strike Group Ten and later U.S. Fifth Fleet, deputy CNO for operations, plans and strategy, and deputy commander of U.S. Central Command.

Following his Navy career, Fox served as corporate vice president at Huntington Ingalls Industries, directly contributing to the first two-carrier procurement since the Reagan administration and the block buy of ten Virginia-class Block V submarines. He has served on the board of the National Defense University Foundation, as a trustee on the National Museum of Naval Aviation Foundation and various service and philanthropic boards. Fox is a frequent and valued Naval Academy speaker and active mentor for midshipmen.

Fox is happily married to his wife of 47 years, Priscilla (Wood) and they have four adult children. All three of their sons, two of whom graduated from the Naval Academy, serve on active duty—one as a Navy captain and two as commanders.

He has commanded at the Marine fighter squadron, Marine aircraft group, Marine aircraft wing, Marine expeditionary force, Marine Corps forces and joint force levels, totaling seven commands, five as a general officer.

Five of his last six and a half years on active duty as a general officer, Beydler worked in U.S. Central Command, first as director of strategy, plans and policy and later as commander, Marine Corps Forces Central Command, leading all Marines in the Middle East.

His decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal with two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, the Legion of Merit and the Air Medal.

Upon retirement, Beydler joined Raytheon Intelligence and Space, leading their Maritime Dominance team, and focused his subsequent consulting work on unmanned aerospace systems. He is the Marine Corps representative on the Board of Directors for the Association of Naval Aviation (ANA), and served as chair of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation National Capital Area annual campaign for the past five years. Beydler will complete six years as the vice chair of the Alumni Association Board of Trustees in May 2026, including six years as chair of the Joint Finance and Audit Committee.

Beydler is married to the former Kimberly Stevens, daughter of a career Naval officer. They have two children: Major Shannon Hillery, a judge advocate, and Robert Beydler, Class of 2015, a veteran Marine who also flew the F/A-18.

Over three spaceflights, Cassidy spent 377 days in orbit and completed 10 spacewalks, flying aboard both the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the Russian Soyuz. He launched for his final six-month mission in 2020 at the onset of the global pandemic. From 2015 to 2017, he served as NASA’s 14th chief astronaut, overseeing astronaut training, crew assignments and operations during a period of major organizational change. Cassidy is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a master’s degree in ocean engineering from MIT in 2000. He also holds honorary doctorates from Husson University (2015) and the University of Maine at Augusta (2021).

In 2021, Cassidy became president and CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, where he led the successful effort to build the National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, TX, and launch a national leadership institute and monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC. His leadership united bipartisan support from five U.S. presidents and secured more than $300 million in funding to bring the vision to life.

Cassidy’s contributions have been recognized with some of the nation’s highest honors, including NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal (twice), the Great American Patriot Award and the Living Legends of Aviation Award.

Cassidy and his wife, Peggy, reside in Keller, TX.  They have five adult children; the oldest was a submarine officer on USS Ohio and the youngest, a 2025 USNA graduate, is just beginning his Navy pilot career.