At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bradford Crain and his roommate had a Friday evening ritual.
“We would watch ‘Top Gun’ as a junior and senior every Friday at 5 p.m.,” Crain recalled. His roommate would tell him, “We’re going to be pilots. We’re going to be pilots.”
And both did. His roommate went on to become a NASA astronaut and commander of several space missions. Crain, now a captain, became a Navy helicopter pilot and embarked on a military career that took him around the world.
Somewhere along the way, Crain discovered flying wasn’t what drove him most.
“The passion for me I found later was developing people,” he said.
That helps explain why an opening on a military job board caught his attention earlier this year. Crain had been considering a teaching position elsewhere when he spotted an opportunity to lead the University of Virginia’s Navy ROTC program.
“As I went through the Navy, I just found I really like teaching people to lead,” Crain said. “So, when that came up, that really hit the mark for me.”
Now UVA’s professor of naval science and commanding officer of Navy ROTC, Crain brings 35 years of leadership experience spanning Navy aviation, working with NATO, carrier strike group operations and senior strategic planning.
Most recently, he advised senior decision-makers on national priorities and helped lead strategic planning involving Ukraine security assistance and the American Institute in Taiwan. Earlier in his career, he oversaw air strategy and operations for a carrier strike group and helped lead a multinational Baltic Sea exercise involving 22 nations, 40 ships and 60 aircraft.
Crain says working with UVA’s midshipmen gives him a fresh perspective after decades in the military. “They’re just so bright-eyed and so hopeful of everything,” he said. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
Crain brings that experience to UVA’s 43 midshipmen, who are preparing to become Navy and Marine Corps officers. He says their enthusiasm and optimism have been among the unexpected pleasures of his new role.
“That’s what I underestimated here – how interesting it is to talk to them,” Crain said. “As an older person, I’m more pragmatic and practical, and they’re just so bright-eyed and so hopeful of everything.”
The military those students will enter looks much different from the one Crain joined. Technology has accelerated the pace of operations, information travels almost instantly, and military forces increasingly work alongside partners around the world.
“The pace and the chaos and the complexity – that’s how we describe it,” Crain said. “It’s just so fast with technology, and the globe doesn’t feel as big as it used to.”
Preparing students for that environment, he said, means building confidence along with military knowledge.
Crain describes UVA’s Navy ROTC program as a “leadership lab.” As midshipmen progress, they take on more responsibility for planning activities, organizing physical training and making decisions, while Crain and his staff provide guidance and feedback.
“We’re here to support them, and then they are given the opportunity to do the leading,” he said.
