Rear Admiral Peter Garvin
Commander, Naval Education and Training Command
Peter A. Garvin graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. He earned an M.S. at the National War College, and is an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar XXI.
He is a pilot and has served with the “Pelicans” of Patrol Squadron 45, a navigator aboard the USS Kearsarge, an executive and commanding officer of the “Fighting Tigers,” and has been commander of Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 10. His shore assignments include being an instructor pilot at the P-3 fleet replacement squadron and serving as placement officer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel. He served as executive assistant to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.
Garvin served as commander of Navy Recruiting Command, and most recently as commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Group and Patrol Reconnaissance Group Pacific. He assumed command of the Naval Education and Training Command in July 2020.
In the News…
As many as ten Navy leaders, including two SEALS, could face courts-martial following an investigation that singled them out for “failures across multiple systems” including leadership that resulted in the training death of a SEAL candidate in 2022.
The SEAL candidate died from complications from pneumonia after going through Hell Week at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. Investigators found the medical program was “wholly inadequate.”
Rear Admiral Peter Garvin, Commander of the Naval Education and Training Command, wrote in his investigation report that officers in charge of the infamous and highly intense training program and medical staff failed to notice the candidate’s deteriorating condition, and did not take urgent actions necessary to save his life.
According to the 200-page investigation report, medical oversight of the future SEAL was “poorly organized, poorly integrated and poorly led and put candidates at significant risk.” This would-be SEAL’s death might have been prevented if more robust medical oversight had been in place.
