Abstract:
Admiral Jeremy “Mike” Boorda was the U.S. Navy’s chief of naval operations from April 1994 to May 1996. The grandson of Jews who fled Czarist Russia, he was born in South Bend, IN. Dropping out of high school, he enlisted and, after six years, was sent to officer candidate school. Years of sea and shore duty during combat and peacetime led to his becoming the first former enlisted man and the first Jew to become CNO. A brilliant, complex, and caring man, he loved his family, his navy, and his country. His biography chronicles history and politics during his career.