Fred Moosally

Fred P. Moosally (born 4 October 1944) is a former captain in the United States Navy.

During his naval career, Moosally served in many different assignments, including commander of a destroyer and the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61).

He graduated high school in 1962 and was recruited by Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh to play football.

He instead decided to attend the United States Naval Academy after speaking with the academy's football coach, Bill Elias.

Moosally played defensive tackle on the academy's football team.

In 1964 he and the team played in the Cotton Bowl Classic.

One of Moosally's teammates in the game was Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach.

In 1965 Moosally was awarded the Annapolis Touchdown Club's Silver Helmet trophy as the team's Most Valuable Player and was selected to play in the Blue–Gray Football Classic.

Moosally graduated in 1966 with a class ranking of 812 out of 868.

His classmates nicknamed him "Moose" because of his physical presence and his "slap-on-the-back" personality.

Moosally's first tour after commissioning as an ensign was on the destroyer USS Kenneth D. Bailey (DD-713) in which he spent some time off the coast of Vietnam.

He attended destroyer department head school at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island and was assigned to the destroyer USS Lynde McCormick (DDG-8).

In 1971, Moosally returned to the Naval Academy, where he worked in the recruitment and candidate guidance office.

He also worked with the varsity football team.

After turning 30 years old, Moosally was assigned to the frigate USS Bronstein (FF-1037) as the ship's executive officer.

The ship's captain was (then) Lieutenant Commander William J. "Bud" Flanagan who would later become a four-star admiral and commander of the Navy's Atlantic Fleet.

After the Bronstein Moosally was assigned to Washington, D.C. in the Navy's Bureau of Naval Personnel, where he worked for Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf, III.

He was subsequently assigned to the destroyer USS Mahan (DDG-42) as executive officer.

After Mahan, Moosally was promoted to commander, and was assigned to work for the Navy's Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) office as a surface-warfare program coordinator.

Two years later, he became administrative assistant and aide to the CNO, Thomas B. Hayward.

By this time, Moosally was considered to be very well-connected politically with many of the Navy's top admirals, mainly because of tours on the staffs of Metcalf and Hayward.

In 1985, Moosally began a tour as commander of the destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-993).

Metcalf later said he thought Moosally did "a terrific job" as skipper of Kidd.

After Kidd, Moosally worked in the Navy's Office of Legislative Affairs.

Moosally was captain of the Iowa when the center gun of one of the ship's main gun turrets exploded on April 19, 1989, killing 47 crewmen.

During the investigation into the cause of the explosion, Moosally testified that the Navy had assigned personnel of inferior quality to the Iowa.

The investigation found that Iowa had been operating with severe deficiencies in safety and training procedures, for which Moosally was disciplined.

The Navy stated that the deficiencies were unrelated to the turret explosion.

In December 1989 in testimony before the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, Moosally declined to fully support the Navy's conclusion that the explosion had been intentionally caused by Clayton Hartwig, one of the turret's crewmen.

Moosally's testimony was widely reported in the media.

Moosally retired from the Navy soon after in May 1990.

In 1999, Moosally began working for Lockheed Martin.

In 2002 he was appointed president of the company's MS2 division.

In this capacity, Moosally has helped lead Lockheed Martin's involvement in the Freedom-class littoral combat ship and Integrated Deepwater System programs.

It was announced on 12 February 2010 that Moosally was hired as president and chief executive officer of Fincantieri Marine Group (FMG), a subsidiary of Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A.

Moosally, born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, was one of six children in a family of three sons and three daughters.

His father was an insurance salesman and the family attended the local Syriac Maronite Church.

At Ursuline High School, according to Charles Thompson, Moosally played American football.

A defensive tackle, he was selected as a second-string member of the all-city squad.

Moosally also lifted weights, ran track, and played summer baseball.