Daryl Lane Caudle is an American admiral and engineer who has served as the 34th chief of naval operations since 2025.
Official portrait, 2025
Adm. Caudle relieves Adm. Christopher W. Grady as commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command on 7 December 2021
Caudle at the change of command ceremony for Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, in February 2019.
Caudle receives a Japanese honor guard during his visit to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, in November 2025.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is the body of the most senior uniformed leaders within the United States Department of Defense, which advises the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, t
Daryl Caudle
…three submarines. His senior assignments have included Commander, Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet; Vice Director for Strategy, Plans, and Policy on the Joint Staff (J-5) in Washington, D.C.; concurrent terms as Commander, Naval Submarine Forces, Submarine Force Atlantic, and Allied Submarine Command from 2019 to…
The Joint Chiefs of Staff in January 2026
United States Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Charles W. Duncan Jr with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General George S. Brown and the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon in 1977
Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting (c. 1943). From left to right are: Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces; Adm. William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy; Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations; and Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1959. From left to right: Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, USA; Adm. Arleigh A. Burke, USN; Gen. Nathan F. Twining, USAF (chairman); Gen. Thomas Dresser White, USAF; and Gen. Randolph M. Pate, USMC