United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
rear admiral
Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral.
Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
who was the former
Chief of Naval Education and Training
The Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) is an enterprise-level shore command of the United States Navy with more than 19,000 military and staff personnel at more than 1,640 subordinate activities, sites, districts, stations, and detachme ...
from 2017 to 2020.
He was the commander of
Joint Task Force Guantanamo
Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the base. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command. Since January 2002 the command ...
from July 2014 to June 2015.
Education
Raised in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
, Cozad attended the
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...
, graduating with a B.S. degree in oceanography and physics and an ensign's commission in 1985. He later earned an M.S. degree in national resource management from the
Eisenhower School
The Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy (Eisenhower School), formerly known as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), is a part of the National Defense University. It was renamed on September 6, 20 ...
at the
National Defense University National Defence (or Defense) University (or College) may refer to:
:''Alphabetical by country'' University
* Marshal Fahim National Defense University, Afghanistan
* National Defense University (Azerbaijan)
* People's Liberation Army National Defe ...
.
Personal life
In March 2018, Cozad suffered an accidental fall in his kitchen, resulting in two
vertebrae
Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...
being crushed. Despite surgery to correct the injury, he lost all feeling below his waist and was told he would be a
paraplegic
Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek ()
"half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neura ...
for life. He began physical rehabilitation for the injury and also began participating in adaptive sports in order to remain physically active. In February 2019, he attended a Navy-sponsored adaptive sports camp. He subsequently tried out for and was selected to the 40-member team representing the Navy in the 2019
Warrior Games
The Warrior Games is a multi-sport event for wounded, injured or ill service personnel and veterans organized by the United States Department of Defense.
History 2010–2014
The Warrior Games have taken place annually since 2010 except ...