Vice Admiral Jeffrey Trussler
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for International Warfare
Jeffrey E. Trussler is a native of Oklahoma and a member of the Cherokee Nation. He graduated from Northern Oklahoma A&M Junior College, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Oklahoma. He was commissioned at the Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island.
His shore and staff assignments include Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, nuclear propulsion examining board, two tours at the Navy Personnel Command, the Joint Staff, and the Navy Staff.
At sea and operational assignments, he served as a division officer on USS Honolulu, engineer officer on USS Tennessee, executive officer of USS Columbus, and command, USS Maryland. He was the first commander of Task Force 69 for the U.S. Sixth Fleet in Naples, Italy.
Flag assignments were as the first commander of Undersea Warfighting Development Center, and as director, Future Plans on the Navy Staff.
He assumed duties as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare and the 68th director of Naval Intelligence in June 2020.
In the News…
The United States is closely watching China’s anti-ship ballistic missile program, Vice Admiral Jeffrey Trussler said during a virtual event held by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.
“I’m not going to get [into] much more detail of what we know and don’t know about the missile program,” he said. “But they’re pouring a lot of money into the ability to basically rim their coast in the South China Sea with anti-ship missile capability. It’s a destabilizing effort in the South China Sea, in the East China Sea, all those areas. When their claims of some of these contested islands—they’re militarizing those areas.
He said, “That’s something we’re going to watch pretty closely. It’s something that confuses the international order and concerns the allies in the region. It’s one reason we work to keep the global commons open and the free flow of traffic. But when you see that, those are troubling developments. They’re probably aimed and specifically developed towards the United States Navy. So we watch them very closely.”
