NPS Welcomes New Chief of Staff
Today@NPS
NPS Welcomes New Chief of Staff
By Kenneth A. Stewart
Capt. Anthony Parisi is pictured at his new office in Herrmann Hall after officially taking the helm as NPS’ Chief of Staff, July 17. Parisi brings a wealth of experience at sea, as well as graduate education at both NPS and the Naval War College to his new position at the university.
“I have to admit that when I was here as a student, I thought this was the most wonderful place in the world,” said Parisi. “I had just come off four and a half years of arduous sea duty and they told me that my job here was to learn, just to learn.”
Throughout his naval career, Parisi has spent a lot of time at sea. He completed several deployments to the Mediterranean, Black, Adriatic and North Red Seas. He also participated in several shorter deployments to Northern Europe, the Eastern Pacific, Arabian Gulf and South America. But he is perhaps most proud of the time he spent commanding Afloat Training Group Mayport, the USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) and the USS Zephyr (PC 8).
Parisi relished his time at sea, but it was his numerous trips ashore as a “quasi-diplomat” that inspired him to pursue an interest that coincided directly with his NPS education in national security affairs.
“I decided to go into the defense attaché business, which brought me to Rome, Italy where I was the senior defense official and naval attaché for three years,” said Parisi. “It was an incredibly eye-opening job where I can say that I directly used my NPS education and put it to practical use in the field.”
Parisi claims that he never stopped applying the lessons he learned as a young officer at NPS. He is excited to be back on campus, and to have the opportunity to be intellectually challenged once again.
“When you are working with hundreds of people who have PhDs, some of whom are literally rocket scientists and physicists, you are going to grow. You are going to be challenged,” said Parisi. “A lot of Navy officers get tired, because it's a tough life and they eventually want to do less challenging jobs as their careers draw to a close, but I can’t work like that. I wouldn't be happy if I wasn't being challenged every day.”