Gary Roughead
Admiral of the U.S. Navy and 29th Chief of Naval Operations

Gary Roughead ( ruf-HED; born July 15, 1951) is a former United States Navy officer who served as the 29th Chief of Naval Operations from 2007 to 2011. He previously served as Commander, United States Fleet Forces Command from May 17 to September 29, 2007. Prior to that, Roughead served as the 31st Commander, United States Pacific Fleet from 2005 to 2007. In 2011, he retired from the U.S. Navy after 38 years of service.
Early life and education
Roughhead was born July 15, 1951, in Buffalo, New York. Roughead graduated from high school at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, in 1969. He is a 1973 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and a Surface Warfare Officer.
Career
Roughead's initial assignment was in the Weapons Department aboard USS Josephus Daniels (CG-27). This was followed by duty as executive officer on the patrol gunboats USS Douglas (PGM-100) and USS Tacoma (PGM-92), the former home-ported in Naples, Italy. He was the commissioning chief engineer aboard USS O'Bannon (DD-987) and executive officer on board USS Spruance (DD-963).
The public source identifies “Gary Roughead” as admiral of the U.S. Navy and 29th Chief of Naval Operations. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gary, Roughead and Admiral.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q343740. VIAF identifies the subject as 186869201. The Library of Congress control number is no2011160275. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 2007, 2011 and 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gary Roughead” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.