WILLIAM ARTHUR OWENS 1 March 1994 — 29 February 1996 illiam Owens was born 8 May 1940 in Bismarck, North Dakota. Willi His maternal grandfather had served in the Spanish-American War, his father had been a Navy enlisted man during World War I, and the uncle for whom he was named had been a US Naval Academy graduate. Originally planning to attend the University of North Dakota, Owens decided to seek an appointment to the Naval Academy after seeing a movie about life there. He entered the Academy after graduating from Bismarck High School in 1958. In June 1962 he received a bachelor of science degree in naval science and his commission as an ensign. After almost two years of training, Owens, who had been promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) in December 1963, embarked on a career as a nuclear submariner, eventually spending a total of over six years undersea. His first undersea tour was on the ballistic missile submarine USS James Monroe (SSBN 622) from April 1964 until March 1966. During that tour he was promoted to lieutenant. Following naval guided missile school, Lieutenant Owens served briefly on the USS Tecumseh (SSBN 628). From there, he was selected to be Engineering Officer of the nuclear attack submarine USS Seadragon (SSN 584). During his time aboard, the Seadragon participated in surveillance operations off North Vietnam during 1966 and 1967. Owens remained with the Seadragon until June 1971, playing a key role during its almost three-year overhaul. Named Submarine Force Pacific Fleet Officer of the Year in 1969, he was promoted to lieutenant commander in September of that year. Admiral William A. Owens United States Navy Owens's first staff assignment was in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, where from June 1971 until July 1972 he was Assistant Head of the Special Studies and Objectives Division in the Office of Program Appraisal. The recipient of a Chief of Naval Operations Fellows scholarship to study at Oxford University in England, Lieutenant Commander Owens received a B.A. and an M.A. in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford in 1974. Following a training assignment with Commander, Submarine Squadron ONE, he served as Executive Officer of the Pacific Fleet's USS Pogy (SSN 647) from December 1974 until August 1977. He received an M.B.A. in engineering management from George Washington University in 1975. After his promotion to commander in July 1977, training at Admiral Hyman Rickover's Division of Naval Reactors at the Department of Energy and the commanding officers' school in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, prepared Owens for the next stage of his career. From July 1978 to August 1980 he commanded the Pacific Fleet's USS Sam Houston (SSBN 609). Next he served short assignments as Deputy Commander for Readiness on the squadron staff of Submarine Squadron TEN and then as Commanding Officer of the USS Corpus Christi (SSN 705). After a year with the first Strategic Studies Group at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where he participated in the development of the Navy's maritime strategy, Commander Owens became Executive Assistant to the Director of Naval Warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. He served in that position from August 1982 to June 1984, a period during which the directorate's scope expanded to include electronic, arctic, and theater nuclear warfare. During this time Owens also guided the Navy's war gaming effort. He was promoted to captain in August 1983 and assumed command of Submarine Squadron FOUR in the summer of 1984. As squadron commander supervising the operations of fourteen ships that deployed from the Mediterranean to the North Atlantic, Captain Owens introduced some of the first tactics for the employment of fast attack submarines with other Navy and Air Force systems. He next served as Chief of Staff to the Commander Submarine Force, Atlantic, from June 1985 to March 1986. There followed a series of increasingly important assignments ashore and afloat. After serving as Executive Assistant and Senior Aide to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations from March 1986 to June 1987 and receiving his promotion to rear admiral (lower half) in May 1987, Owens assumed command of Submarine Group SIX, the Navy's largest submarine group. In that capacity, he exercised operational control of nuclear-powered submarines operating in the Western Atlantic. When the Navy established the Strategic Think Tank in the spring of 1988, Owens received additional responsibilities as its first Director. In June 1988 he returned to the Office of Program Appraisal on the Secretary of the Navy's Staff as Director. After only a month in that position, he became Senior Military Assistant to Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci. Owens continued to serve in that position under Carlucci's successor, Secretary Dick Cheney, and received his second star in August 1990. In October Rear Admiral Owens assumed command of the SIXTH Fleet and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Strike Force South, Allied Naval Forces South. He was promoted to vice admiral in February 1991. The first shots of the Persian Gulf War were launched from ships under Vice Admiral Owens's command in the Eastern Mediterranean. During the war, carriers from his Admiral Owens with Secretary of Defense William J. Perry and President William J. Clinton, August 1995. As Vice Chairman, Admiral Owens used his position as chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) to advance his concept of a joint "system of systems" that would utilize the most recent advances in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; communications and information technologies; and precision guided munitions to achieve "dominant battlefield awareness" for the US military in any environment. A vocal and tireless proponent of the need to take advantage of the revolution in technology to enhance military effectiveness in an era of reduced defense spending, Owens strove to end dupli cation of weapons systems among the services and to ensure the interoperability of new systems. To accomplish his objectives, he increased the JROC's analytical capabilities; established the Joint Monthly Readiness Review, which he chaired; and was instrumental in the creation of the National Imagery Agency Senior Steering Group, which he co-chaired. With the support of the Chairman, General John M. Shalikashvili, Admiral Owens fully exploited the authority that the GoldwaterNichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act vested in the Chairman of the Joint |