13 Oct 2025

Dr. John Cordle Charts a New Course

Dr. Cordle retired after finding his moral compass no longer aligned with the administration's charted course.

As a retired Navy Captain, Dr. John Cordle knew the impact of fatigue management on force readiness. Following his retirement, Dr. Cordle completed his Doctorate of Engineering in Human Systems Engineering and rededicated himself to serving the Navy as a Human Factors Engineer. As a civilian employee, Dr. Cordle set out to identify signs of stress and fatigue and built systems to prevent future collisions at sea. In May 2025, Dr. Cordle left government service after finding that his moral compass no longer aligned with that of the current administration.

In addition to his work on fatigue management, Dr. Cordle was a fierce advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the Navy and regularly published articles and spoke alongside his friend Keith Green on issues impacting women and minority service members. In Dr. Cordle's words, "There is this narrative that DEI is about giving people an unfair advantage, but it was really about removing the unfair disadvantages in the system."

Now in his second retirement, Dr. Cordle is ringing the alarm on the Trump administration's unraveling of previous corrective actions for fatigue management in the Navy. In a recent CIMSEC article, Dr. Cordle urged new Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle to consider a holistic examination of recent near misses to evaluate the effectiveness of the U.S. Fleet Forces Comprehensive Review corrective actions and their application to the entire Navy.

Dr. Cordle regularly publishes articles on his Substack and has a book coming out later this year titled "Letters to Myself" from StoneTowerPress.

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Biography

Dr. John Cordle, Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired), John retired from the Navy in 2013 after 30 years of service. He commanded the USS Oscar Austin (DDG-79) and USS San Jacinto (CG-56), earning several of the Navy’s highest individual awards for leadership. These include the Admiral Bulkeley Award for Peer Leadership in 2000, a Bronze Star in 2003, as well as the BUMED Epictetus Award for Innovative Leadership and the U.S. Navy League's Captain John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational Leadership in 2010. He is a Plankowner on CVN 75 and CVN 77, where he served as Reactor Officer. He received the SNA Literary Award in 2014 and 2019, as well as the 2019 ASNE Solberg Award and U. S. Naval Institute Author of the Year Award for his contributions to fatigue management in the United States Navy. In addition to serving as Chief of Staff for Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic, he also served as a Program Manager in the maritime industry for Huntington Ingalls and as a GS-14 Human Factors Engineer, where he was recognized with the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award for literally “Changing the Navy” in its approach to fatigue management. John has authored several books including a Transition Guide for military personnel and published over a dozen articles on leadership and mentorship. Now retired, he is focused on leveraging his life experience to help develop future leaders.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Cordle's experience and his former job, check out his recent CIMSEC article.