Rear Adm. Samuel J. CoxThe Navy is reassigning Rear Adm. Samuel J. Cox who was serving as the Director of Intelligence, J2, for U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, the Department of Defense announced.
Cox will become the new director of the National Maritime Intelligence Center and commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Cox’s biography:
Currently serving as the director of Intelligence, U.S. Cyber Command since July 2011, Rear Adm. Cox most recently served as the director, National Maritime Intelligence Center, 2010-2011. Previous flag assignments include; head of the Multi-national Intelligence Task Force investigating the sinking of South Korea’s warship Cheonan; senior member in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands program; director of Fleet Intelligence, and director of Plans and Policy (N5) for Naval Network Warfare Command. Prior to his selection to flag rank in 2007, he commanded the U.S. Central Command Joint Intelligence Center for three years.
Cox graduated with honors from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1980, winning the Trident Scholar and History Department Awards. He holds a master’s degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
Sea duty and operational assignments include: E-2C Carrier Airborne Early Warning squadron (VAW) 121 intelligence officer, and then Air wing 7 intelligence officer embarked on USS Dwight D. Eisenhower for contingency operations off Libya and Lebanon, 1981-1984; current intelligence officer for commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, embarked on USS Blue Ridge, deployed to the Persian Gulf for Operations Desert Shield/Storm and then fleet collection manager for Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet for Western Pacific operations, 1990-1992; intelligence officer (N2) for Commander, Carrier Group 8, embarked on USSTheodore Roosevelt for combat Operations Allied Force (Kosovo) and Southern Watch (Iraq), 1998-99; and intelligence officer (N2) for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/5th Fleet, Bahrain, for Southern Watch, Iraqi Maritime Interception Operations, and initial Enduring Freedom combat operations in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.
Shore assignments include: Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) intelligence plot watch officer and CNO Briefer, 1984-87; deputy director, international programs and assistant operations officer for Commander, Naval Intelligence Command/Task Force 168, 1987-90; officer-in-charge, U.S. Atlantic Command Joint Intelligence Center during Operation Uphold Democracy (Haiti), 1993-95; flag secretary for Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic/commander-in-chief, U.S. Atlantic Command, 1995-98; Future Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting branch head, OPNAV Staff, Pentagon, 2002-03; and the first intelligence officer to serve as a senior fellow on the CNO Strategic Studies Group, 2003-04.
Cox has earned numerous awards, including a Bronze Star, a Director of National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal, and the 2001 Navy League of the U.S., Naval Intelligence Foundation Award, for excellence in operational intelligence support to the Fleet.
