Professor Steven Kornatz

Professor Steven Kornatz, Captain, U.S. Navy, (Ret.) was commissioned upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy with a BS in Mathematics. He served for 30 years as a helicopter and jet pilot, deploying from both coasts to the Pacific and Central Command areas of responsibility. His flight experience included a tour as operational test flight director for aircraft integration of GPS, missile, and electronic surveillance measures systems. Besides progression through normal squadron billets to aviation command, Kornatz was a national security planner assigned to the Presidential Contingency Programs office of the White House Military Office. While in the White House, he was a contingency planning officer for Continuity of the Presidency programs, Director of the President's Emergency Operations Center, and Director of the White House Relocation Facility. He was also assigned to the staff of Commander, Pacific Fleet where he served as an ASW planning officer and oversaw test plan development and execution of commercial helicopter operations from MSC ships. He was assigned as Air Boss in USS ESSEX (LHD-2) forward deployed in Sasebo, Japan where he made multiple deployments. He was later assigned as a faculty member in the Naval War College’s Joint Military Operations (JMO) department and in 2004 volunteered for an Individual Augmentee assignment to Baghdad, Iraq as the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Minister of Science and Technology. Returning from Baghdad, Kornatz was assigned as JMO Chairman and subsequently as Director, Naval Command College, NWC’s college for senior international officers. In 2008-09 he was assigned to a second tour in Iraq as Commanding Officer, Base Command Group, Al Asad Air Base. He returned to the Naval War College and joined the College of Operational and Strategic Leadership faculty as a military professor. Additionally, Kornatz has earned Master of Science degrees in Systems Management (University of Southern California) and National Security and Strategic Studies (Naval War College).

Following active duty retirement, Kornatz became a civilian professor at NWC’s College of Operational and Strategic Leadership, developing and teaching multiple planning courses for junior and senior officers assigned to major maritime staffs. After a reorganization, he was selected as Deputy Dean, College of Maritime Operational Warfare, responsible for faculty oversight, and development and teaching of six operational level of war courses with an annual throughput of thousands of U.S. and international officers. Kornatz also led or participated in numerous mobile training teams teaching the Navy Planning Process and Operational Level of War processes to international and U.S. officers. Additionally, he developed and taught NWC electives on the Maritime Operational Level of War and the navies in the U.S. Civil War.