Vice Admiral Robert B. Murrett is a faculty member at Syracuse University, and also a military veteran. You should know his story, because it’s a Syracuse University story—one that speaks to our past, our present, and our future.
Murrett is an excellent example of our Hometown Heroes, growing up in Buffalo, NY and attending the University of Buffalo, where he received a Bachelor’s of Arts in History in 1975. Murrett’s initial tours of duty with the US Navy after commissioning included deployments to the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, and West Pacific as an afloat intelligence officer aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, USS America, and USS Independence.
Soon after his return to the US following his deployments, Murrett was assigned to the Defense Intelligence College, where he received a Master’s of Science in Strategic Intelligence. With his refined skills in data and national intelligence, Murrett was assigned to the Chief of Naval Operations Intelligence as a briefing officer. This experience was particularly valuable as Murrett soon after was assigned as an Assistant Intelligence Officer for the Commander of the US Second Navy Fleet, where he served from 1983-1985 upon the USS Mount Whitney and the USS Nassau. Following the two years at sea, Murrett served for three years on dry ground as the Assistant Naval Attaché at the US Embassy in Oslo, Norway.
After Murrett’s service in Oslo, he went back to the sea, serving first as the Operational Intelligence Officer for the Commander of the US Pacific Fleet in 1989 and then as the Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence for Commander, Carrier Group Eight aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt from 1992-1995. Murrett continued to climb the ranks of Naval intelligence, serving as the Assistant Chief of Staff , Intelligence for Commander, Second US Naval Fleet from 1995-1997 and then as the Executive Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence from 1997-1998.
From 1998-2000, Murrett served in elite intelligence posts for the Navy, including serving as Director of the Intelligence Directorate in the Office of Naval Intelligence from 1998-1999 and as Commander of the Atlantic Intelligence Command (AIC) in 1999. While in this post, Murrett oversaw the transition of AIC to Joint Forces Intelligence Command, which was very successful under his leadership.
Murrett later served as Director for Intelligence at the US Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, VA for two years before becoming the Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence, a post he held from 2005-2006. From here, as was typical for Murrett, he could only move upwards. He was appointed in 2006 as the 4th Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Since his retirement in 2010, Murrett has been a Professor of Practice at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship of Public Affairs, the Deputy Director of SU’s Institute on National Security and Counter terrorism, and a member of the SU Institute for Veterans and Military Families’ Board of Directors.