Craig E. Steidle

Navy career

Admiral Steidle joined the Navy after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1968. Steidle went on to command the Navy's F/A-18 program, and then became the director of the DOD Joint Advanced Strike Technology Office. The admiral opted to retire from the Navy in March 2000. The office was renamed the Exploration Systems Directorate in an August 2004 restructuring. He served as a visiting professor in aerospace engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy for five years and then briefly as the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation before fully retiring in 2011.

Education

Craig Steidle grew up in Huntington, Long Island, New York, and attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated with merit in 1968. Later, Steidle went to the University of Southern California and earned a Master of Science degree in systems management. He also attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University where he earned a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering. Admiral Steidle was a distinguished graduate from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in June 1976.

Personal

Admiral Steidle resides in Southern Maine. His daughter, Gretchen Ki Steidle is the founder of Global Grassroots (www.globalgrassroots.org), a nonprofit which assists marginalized women in Rwanda and Uganda and helps them start social entrepreneurships to better their communities. His oldest son, Brian Steidle, former captain in the US Marine Corps, served as a peace monitor in Darfur during the Darfur Conflict and wrote a book with his sister about his experiences, The Devil Came on Horseback, which was turned into a documentary film of the same name that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. Steidle's youngest son, Eric Steidle, USNA '04, is a commander in the US Naval Reserves.