Meet the USS Midway Museum’s new CEO, Rear Admiral Terry Kraft

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – Rear Admiral Terry Kraft has been named the new CEO of the USS Midway Museum.

Kraft joined KUSI’s Paul Rudy on Good Morning San Diego to introduce himself to San Diego.

The USS Midway Museum supplied KUSI with the following information detailing Kraft’s impressive career:

Rear Admiral Terry Kraft, U.S. Navy (ret.)
Retired Rear Adm. Terry Kraft is the son of a Navy captain. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981 and was designated a naval flight officer in 1982. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science from Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala., and is a graduate of the Navy Nuclear Power Program and MIT Seminar XXI (U.S. national security and foreign policy program). He was a federal executive fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

His sea-duty tours included Attack Squadron (VA-55) embarked aboard USS Coral Sea (CV 43), Attack Squadron 115 (VA-115) embarked aboard USS Midway (CV 41), and Attack Squadron (VA-95) embarked aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). He also served as executive officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). During those tours, he participated in Operations Eldorado Canyon, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF).

Terry commanded Electronic Attack Squadron 131 (VAQ-131), the amphibious transport dock USS Shreveport (LPD 12), the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), and the USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group 12. He participated in both OIF and OEF during all four tours.

Shore tours for Terry have included Attack Squadron 128 (VA-128), Air Command and Staff College, Current Operations Directorate, U.S. Pacific Command, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass.

After his selection to rear admiral, Terry reported to the chief of naval operations staff, first as the head of Maritime Aviation, Unmanned Aerial Systems and Aviation Training Plans and Programs, and later as the director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Capabilities. He subsequently served as the commander of the Navy Warfare Development Command.

For his final naval tour, Terry assumed command of U.S. Naval Forces Japan/Navy Region Japan. Based in Yokosuka, Japan, he oversaw six different major military facilities in the region and provided for the safety and wellbeing of more than 40,000 uniformed service members and their families as well as Department of Defense civilian employees.

Terry has more than 3,700 Navy flight hours and 1,000 carrier-arrested landings in the A-6E Intruder, EA-6B Prowler and F/A-18F Super Hornet. He is the recipient of the Legion of Merit with four gold stars, Distinguished Flying Cross (with combat V), the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal with two gold stars, and multiple individual and strike-flight air medals.

Following his retirement from the Navy after 34 years, Terry worked at General Atomics. From 2015 to 2023, Terry held multiple senior leadership and management positions with the global defense and technologies company to include vice president of General Atomics Energy Group, International Strategic Development – Asia-Pacific Region, and Leasing and Services. In these positions he provided strategic leadership in overseeing the development of several critical programs ranging from enhanced nuclear reactor technologies to unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

Terry resides in San Diego with his wife Mary, who served as a Navy Nurse in Japan during Terry’s Midway tour and currently works as a Visiting Nurse for a national veterans non-profit. They have two adult children who make their home in Denver.