William A. “Bill” Owens was an admiral in the United States Navy and later Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Owens was appointed to vice chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, the second-ranking military office in the United States, by Bill Clinton in March 1994. Previously, Owens served as Commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet from 1990 to 1992, which includes Operation Desert Storm. He retired in 1996. He also served as the deputy chief of Naval Operations for Resources, Warfare Requirements and Assessments, from 1991 to 1993.
Owens was a senior military assistant to Secretaries of Defense Frank Carlucci and Dick Cheney, and director of the Office of Program Appraisal for the Secretary of the Navy. In April 2000, Owens co-authored “Lifting the Fog of War” with Edward Offley. After leaving the military, Owens served as an executive or as a member of the board of directors of various companies, including Science Applications International Corporation, Teledesic LLC, and Nortel.
