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FY-23 Navy 18XX Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Nominees Announced

Congratulations to these three information warfare (IW) officers who have been nominated for promotion to the rank of rear admiral (lower half):

Read the Official Announcement

Captain Josh Himes
Captain Kurt Mole
Captain Frank Schlereth
Captain Frank Schlereth

Biography: Captain Joshua Himes

Captain Joshua Himes, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations and diplomatic history in 1993. He was commissioned as an intelligence officer through the Naval ROTC program the same year. He subsequently graduated with a Master of Science degree in systems technology from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2001.

Fleet assignments include Carrier Air Wing Eleven, embarked on USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Kitty Hawk; Carrier Strike Group Twelve, embarked on USS Enterprise; and Carrier Strike Group Two, embarked on USS George H. W. Bush, where he served as the Flag intelligence officer on its maiden deployment. He returned to Carrier Strike Group Twelve as the Information Warfare Commander, preparing USS Gerald R. Ford for its maiden deployment. He participated in Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, New Dawn and numerous Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Fleet actions during these tours. He is currently serving as Chief of Staff for Fleet Cyber Command/Tenth Fleet.

His shore assignments include service as the Deputy Director for Intelligence at the Joint Special Operations Command; on the Joint Staff as both Deputy Director for Intelligence in the National Military Command Center and senior editor for the Chairman/SECDEF Daily Intelligence Brief; at the USINDOPACOM, USEUCOM and USJFCOM Joint Intelligence Centers; as the theater intelligence liaison to the Combined Air Operations Center in Vicenza, Italy during Operation Allied Force; as the Governance Team Chief at ISAF Joint Command in Kabul; as the Expanded Maritime Interdiction Operations Team Chief at Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain; and as a Federal Executive Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C.

Captain Himes has commanded the multinational Southern Region Joint Operational Intelligence Cell in Naples, Italy; the Defense Intelligence Agency Navy Element in Washington D.C.; and the Joint Intelligence Center, USCENTCOM, in Tampa, Florida.

In addition to numerous personal and unit awards, he is the recipient of the Admiral B.R. Inman Award for Intelligence from the Naval Postgraduate School, the Military Intelligence Corps’ Knowlton Award, and (twice) the Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor Award for Leadership. He is married to Suzanne, a retired Naval intelligence officer. They have four children: Sydney, Michael, Gabriel and Julia.

Biography: Captain Kurt Mole

Captain Kurt Mole is a native of Bowie, Maryland.  He enlisted in the Navy as a Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) in 1988 and completed the Chinese course of instruction at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. Captain Mole graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and minor in Chinese.  Originally commissioned as a surface warfare officer (SWO), he was selected for re-designation to cryptologic warfare officer in 2000.

Duties afloat include service at the unit level as a SWO aboard USS Leftwich (DD 984) and at Assault Craft Unit 5 as Officer-in-Charge of a detachment of Landing Craft Air Cushion; at the strike group level as Fleet Information Warfare Center team leader for USS Constellation Strike Group and USS Carl Vinson Strike Group, as the senior cryptologist for USS Kitty Hawk Strike Group; and finally at the fleet level as the information operations officer for Commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet embarked USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19). He has completed multiple deployments to the Arabian Gulf and western Pacific throughout his career.

Duties ashore include Department Head at Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Colorado, Executive Officer at NIOC Whidbey Island and NIOC Maryland, Head for Information Warfare Community Enlisted Assignments at Navy Personnel Command, Director’s Fellow at the National Security Agency, Senior Operations Officer (SOO) for the National Security Operations Center, and Deputy Chief, NSA/CSS Cybersecurity Threat Operations Center (NCTOC). He served as the Commander, National Security Agency / Central Security Service Hawaii prior to his current assignment as information warfare commander (IWC) for Carrier Strike Group Five/CTF-70.

Captain Mole holds an Information Systems Operations Certificate from the Naval Postgraduate School, a Master of Business Administration from National University, and a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.

His personal awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, and various Navy and Marine Corps Commendation and Achievement Medals.  He is married to his wife, Cheryl, and they have four children.

Biography: Captain Frank Schlereth

Captain Frank Schlereth is currently serving as the Executive Officer for the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He has extensive experience within the DIA Directorate of Operations (DO), having served as the Chief of Operations for the DIA Defense Attaché Service and the East Asia Division Chief for the DIA DO. Captain Schlereth is a two-time Naval Attaché having served in Athens, Greece and Tel Aviv, Israel. During a previous DIA DO tour, he deployed to Afghanistan in direct support of Operation Enduring Freedom as a team leader in support of a sensitive collection mission. He was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat "V" for his deployment. As the Chief of the Counterintelligence/Human Intelligence branch of OPNAV N2N6 (N2X) Captain Schlereth oversaw the Navy CI/HUMINT program and was responsible for the successful creation and oversight of the Navy's Raider Cutlass program. Prior to assuming these duties, Captain Schlereth served as the OPNAV N2 representative to the OPNAV N3. Captain Schlereth was a Fellow at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Captain Schlereth earned his bachelor's degree from Villanova University and was commissioned in May 1995. His first tour as an intelligence officer was with fighter squadron VFA-22. During his tour he completed a full deployment work-up cycle and a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in direct support of Operation Desert Fox and Operation Southern Watch. He served as a staff intelligence officer for the Sixth Fleet in Gaeta, Italy. During his tour at Sixth Fleet, Captain Schlereth was the fleet collections officer as well as the Joint Task Force collections officer for multiple joint task forces in the European Command, to include the 2004 Olympics. Captain Schlereth spent the final six months of his tour in the newly created position of the maritime officer for the NATO Joint Forces Command Naples Joint Intelligence Analysis Center, having been hand selected by the JFC Commander. Captain Schlereth has also served as a White House Social Aide.

Captain Schlereth has a master's degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College and is a qualified Information Warfare and Joint Qualified Officer. He has earned numerous personal and unit awards. He is married to the former Kirstin Beach and has one daughter, Claire.