Meet the Supe
POSTED ON: Friday, September 19, 2025 3:52 PM by MC2 Hannah Cox
For 180 years, the United States Naval Academy (USNA) has been led by distinguished naval officers. For the first time in history, its mantle of leadership has been transferred from a Sailor to a Marine, Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte, the 66th Superintendent.
“I trust you will shape the next generation of our naval officers to navigate uncertainty and lead with confidence,” said Gen. Eric M. Smith, the 39th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps at the Naval Academy Change of Command Ceremony on Aug. 15.
In 1987, Borgschulte answered his nation’s call and first set foot on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy as a plebe. Whether it was his time as a linebacker on the football field or as an Oceanography major in the classroom, the teamwork, discipline, and leadership experience he gained defined his way ahead.
“Mike has always been a leader,” said David Berghult, a 1991 classmate and teammate of Borgschulte at USNA. “He led on the football field, he led in the Brigade by becoming a Company Commander during the second semester of his First Class Year, he led as a friend to many.”
In 1991, he took the path that few have chosen and commissioned into the United States Marine Corps. Two years later, he completed flight training in Pensacola and was designated as a Marine Corps aviator.
He has accrued over 3,800 flight hours, and 700 combat hours while deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. He also earned a Master’s of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic studies at the Naval War College. Combat and strategy became the twin engines that projected his course of duty at the Pentagon.
Lt. Gen. Borgschulte’s orders to become the 66th Superintendent, brings his career full circle back to where his career started. With leadership, discipline, and grit forged in combat as a Marine and a military upbringing grounded in the Academy’s rich naval heritage, he stands at the intersection of tradition and innovation.
“He is someone who his fellow Marines have described as a ‘military hybrid’ of modern tactics and ancient attitudes,” said the Honorable John Phelan, 79th Secretary of the Navy, during the ceremony.
Borgschulte’s mission is not to change the academy’s course, but to strengthen it.
“I do not take lightly the weight of this charge to safeguard the Academy’s proud traditions while preparing future generations of officers for the challenges of an ever-changing and more complex world,” said Borgschulte during the ceremony. “The United States Naval Academy must never see itself as, nor aspire to become, simply another university.”
From Midshipman to Marine, cockpit to command, the 66th Superintendent’s mission is to shape the next generation of warriors who are prepared to lead, fight, and win every time.
“We will build a culture where excellence is not an aspiration, but an expectation; where winning is a habit, not a hope,” said Borgschulte.
Our nation’s future Navy and Marine Corps leaders will be forged in discipline, shaped by hardship, and ready to fight and lead in the face of adversity, and the 66th Superintendent is relentless in pursuit of that aim.
“Get ready, midshipmen. It’s time to buckle your chin straps,” said Phelan.
Category: General Interest