Holy Cross Instructor Receives Top Award From National Defense Association

WORCESTER, Mass. – Captain Sea Thomas, Marine officer instructor in the department of naval science at the College of the Holy Cross, is the recipient of the Colonel Leo Codd Award, presented by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).

The award is presented to the nation’s best Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) instructors from each service – Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.  Thomas was selected as the top Marine instructor among 62 Marine officers serving at 59 Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) units across the country. As part of this award he is also recognized as being among the top two instructors in the NROTC program of approximately 275 total Navy and Marine Corps officers.

The award is in memory of the late Colonel Leo A. Codd, USA (Ret.), who was a ROTC graduate and a strong lifelong supporter of the ROTC Program. He devoted his entire life to the principle that, “the best guaranty of peace is a strong United States.”

“I have always been attracted to a life of public service, and I hope to continue serving my community and country, whether in uniform or in the civilian sector,” says Thomas.

Born and raised on the island of Maui, Hawaii, he currently lives with his wife, Christine, and son, Boston, in Northborough. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2006, Thomas will leave Holy Cross this summer for a new duty station in Hawaii, where he will work at the Joint Intelligence Operations Center for the U.S. Pacific Command. Before coming to Holy Cross he was an intelligence officer stationed in Okinawa, Japan and prior to that he was stationed in Virginia.

Thomas received his B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy, his M.A.L.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and is currently attending the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., where he will graduate in June 2009 with an M.A. in Security Studies.

The department of naval science educates and trains young men and women to serve as commissioned officers in the Navy and Marine Corps. Courses are directly related to naval and amphibious warfare and include leadership, ethics, history, and core professional skills.

The department was founded concurrently with the establishment of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) Program at Holy Cross. While its mission is to support the development of NROTC midshipmen, the department opens its courses to any member of the Holy Cross community, permitting diverse views on events affecting naval science today.