Rear Admiral Craig Eugene Steidle, USN, Ret., (born July 12, 1945) served as the first associate administrator of the Office of Exploration Systems at NASA (now known as the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate), an organization formed to implement NASA's human exploration of the solar system as announced in the

Vision for Space Exploration Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

. Admiral Steidle also served as program manager of the Joint Strike Fighter Program. He is currently serving as a distinguished visiting professor in Aerospace Engineering at the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy is ...

. During his tenure with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, Admiral Steidle became most well known for his prominent role as program manager of the

Joint Strike Fighter Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is a development and acquisition program intended to replace a wide range of existing fighter, strike, and ground attack aircraft for the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Australia, the Netherlan ...

, where he managed the "fly off" between the

X-32 The Boeing X-32 is a concept demonstrator aircraft that was designed for the Joint Strike Fighter competition. It lost to the Lockheed Martin X-35 demonstrator, which was further developed into the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Develop ...

and the X-35 to determine what design would ultimately become the

F-35 Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...

. Admiral Steidle also commanded the Navy's F/A-18 program, the naval aviation's largest production research and development program, as well as the largest foreign military sales program.

Navy career

Admiral Steidle joined the Navy after he graduated from the

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

in 1968. In the Navy, he trained to become an attack pilot and flew carrier night combat missions over

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

. In the 1980s he deployed on carriers, frigates, and cruisers in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. 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.

Post-Navy Career

After retiring from the Navy, Craig Steidle worked as a self-employed aerospace consultant. In January 2004, Adm. Steidle accepted a position as associate administrator of the Office of Exploration Systems at NASA. The purpose of the Office of Exploration Systems was to design, develop, and produce the new architecture and vehicles to send the United States beyond Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s. The Centennial Challenges prize program was also implemented by the Office of Exploration Systems during this time. The office was renamed the Exploration Systems Directorate in an August 2004 restructuring. Admiral Steidle officially resigned from the position of associate administrator for exploration systems in June 2005. 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 , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

and earned a Master of Science degree in systems management. He also attended

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six reg ...

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 Brian Steidle (born 1976) is a former Marine Corps captain, military and security operations expert, and author who had worked on publicizing the Darfur conflict in Sudan. Steidle wrote a book, ''The Devil Came on Horseback'', about his experienc ...

, former captain in the US Marine Corps, served as a peace monitor in Darfur during the

Darfur Conflict The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality ...

and wrote a book with his sister about his experiences,

The Devil Came on Horseback ''The Devil Came on Horseback'' is a documentary film by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg illustrating the continuing Darfur Conflict in Sudan. Based on the book by former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle and his experiences while working for the ...

, which was turned into a documentary film of the same name that premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

in 2007. Steidle's youngest son, Eric Steidle, USNA '04, is a commander in the US Naval Reserves.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steidle, Craig E. 1945 births Living people People from Oakland, California United States Naval Academy alumni United States Naval Aviators United States Navy personnel of the Vietnam War Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) University of Southern California alumni Virginia Tech alumni United States Naval Test Pilot School alumni Recipients of the Meritorious Service Medal (United States) Recipients of the Legion of Merit United States Navy rear admirals (upper half) Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal Recipients of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal NASA people Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal Military personnel from California