BURRILLVILLE – A Burrillville native will retire later this month from his role as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Walter Carter, 59, was a 1977 graduate of Burrillville High School. He has served as superintendent since 2014 after previously working as president of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport.
Carter graduated the naval academy in 1981 and was designated a naval flight officer in 1982. He graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School Top Gun in 1985 and holds the record for successful landings on 19 different aircraft carriers.
During his Navy career the town native commanded a strike fighter squadron an oil replenishment ship, an aircraft carrier, and an aircraft carrier strike group. He also started the Navy’s 21st Century Sailor program, focused on mental health and resiliency among enlisted sailors, according to an article on the vice admiral on military.com.
He is the 62nd superintendent in the history of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and has held the job for five years.
In an interview, Carter said he’s retiring out of the Navy, but not out of the workforce, and that when his term ends this summer, he plans to travel somewhere out of the country, then to the West Coast..
Carter will be replaced by Rear Admiral Sean S. Buck in a change of command ceremony scheduled for Friday, July 26.
