A Marine general will take over as the top military leader at the U.S. Naval Academy for the first time in the school’s 180-year history, replacing the first woman to hold that position.
Marine Lt. Gen. Michael J. Borgschulte, who played linebacker on the school’s football team in the late 1980s before flying AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters in combat, will be the first Marine officer to serve as the superintendent of the Navy’s premier undergraduate officer training school in Annapolis, Maryland, Task & Purpose confirmed Friday. Borgschulte will replace Navy Vice Adm. Yvette M. Davids, who took the position in January 2024. No timeline was announced for Davids’ departure, but Davids is expected to move to a Pentagon position currently held by an Admiral who is expected to retire in the coming months.
The move was first reported by the U.S. Naval Institute and confirmed by Task & Purpose Friday.
About a quarter of Annapolis graduates each year are commissioned as Marine officers — including Borgschulte in 1991 — but none have served as superintendent, the school’s senior military official. The Naval Academy graduates about 1,100 midshipmen each year. As is typical of senior leaders at the school, both Davids and Borgschulte are graduates.
Borgschulte is a career helicopter pilot in the Marines, where he flew with the callsign “Meat.” He commanded Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 in the 2010 Battle of Marjah and later the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. He is currently the Deputy Commandant, Manpower and Reserve Affairs. He has over 3,800 flight hours, according to his Marine Corps bio, including 700 in combat in both Iraq & Afghanistan.
Davids is the first woman to hold the title of superintendent at the Naval Academy, which she took over in January 2024. Her departure varies from the traditional sequence for an Annapolis superintendent, a position that, by federal statute, is intended to be filled for at least three years by each appointee, who then is expected to retire, though the law allows those requirements to be waived. A Pentagon official told Task & Purpose that Davids had received a waiver to leave early for the position on the Chief of Naval Operations staff.
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Though Davids’ 19 months in the job is unusually brief, she was originally nominated to the position more than two years ago but was delayed eight months by Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Davids was nominated for the Annapolis job in April 2023, but became one of 450 senior military officers whose promotions were blocked by Tuberville in a legislative protest over Pentagon policies on reproductive health and travel. Tuberville lifted his holds in December 2023 after 11 months, and Davids took over at the academy the next month.
Davids will now move to the Pentagon in a senior staff position as the deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans, strategy and warfighting development, USNI reported, though she must be confirmed by the Senate for that position. The officer who currently holds that role, Vice Adm. Daniel Dwyer, will retire next month.
Move comes amid Navy Turmoil
Because Davids’ move is into a senior position at the top of the Navy’s leadership structure, it’s unclear how her departure fits into the reshaping of the military’s senior leader corps under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Davids tenure has included several controversial episodes under Hegseth’s campaign to inject political reform into military institutions. Most notable was the removal of 400 books from the school’s library, most by Black authors or on historical subjects like slavery or racism. Among the banned titles was “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou. Most, the academy has said, have been returned. Other incidents included canceled speeches and the temporary removal of historic pictures of female Jewish graduates during a Hegseth visit to the school.
Davids is not the first Naval Academy leader to depart this year for higher command prior to the end of a normal term. Capt. Walter H. Allman, a career Navy SEAL, was the school’s commandant for just over a year when he left in June — the position usually extends several years. He was replaced by Capt. Gilbert E. Clark, Jr. just before ‘I-Day’ on June 26, the day that traditionally represents the start of the academic year at the Academy when the incoming freshman class reports for boot camp-style ‘Plebe summer’ training.
