Captain Bradford Apitz is a 1993 graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he received a Bachelor’s of Science in Marine Transportation with a concentration in commercial fisheries, and a commission in the U.S. Navy’s Merchant Marine Ready Reserve. He sailed aboard commercial vessels with Military Sealift Command for over a year before leaving the industry to become a police officer. After serving four years as a certified police officer in southern New Hampshire he entered the Coast Guard in 1998 through the Maritime Academy Graduate Program.
Upon graduation from the Direct Commissioned Officer School in Yorktown, VA, Captain Apitz was assigned to Coast Guard Marine Safety Office Miami, as a marine inspector and investigator. In 2000 he was selected for flight training and upon graduation was assigned to Air Station Cape Cod as an HU-25 Falcon pilot. His follow-on aviation assignments included Chief of Naval Aviation Training (VT-31) as an instructor pilot, Air Station Kodiak, Alaska as a duty C-130 pilot from 2008-2011, Operations Officer from 2016-2017, and most recently from 2017-2019 as Air Station Kodiak’s Executive Officer.
His staff assignments were to the Coast Guard’s Assistant Commandant for Acquisition (CG-9) managing the 913-member acquisition, construction, and improvement personnel account in support of $1.4B in major acquisition programs, from 2011 to 2014, in Washington, D.C. Captain Apitz was then assigned as the Coast Guard Liaison Officer to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development, and Acquisition from 2014-2016.
From 2019-2021 Captain Apitz served as a Politico-Military Affairs Officer (Western Hemisphere), Strategy, Plans, and Policy Directorate (J5), Joint Chiefs of Staff, at The Pentagon, in Washington, DC. He provided strategy direction, policy guidance, and planning focus to develop and execute the National Military Strategy. In this role, he worked closely with the National Security Council, Department of State, Department of Defense, and the Combatant Commands to provide coordinated politico-military policy recommendations to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was tasked with enabling the Chairman to provide best military advice to the President, Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council on topics affecting homeland defense, maritime security, and Arctic policy.
Captain Apitz earned a Master’s of Arts degree in Global Leadership, with a certificate in Project Management, from the University of San Diego in 2005. He is currently completing his Master of Arts in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense) at the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) in Monterey, CA.
His personal awards include a Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two Meritorious Service Medals, two Coast Guard Commendation Medals, two Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and two Achievement Medals. He is a designated fixed wing aviator and has qualifications in the HU-25C, T-44, and HC-130H aircraft.
Outside of work, Captain Apitz’s time is spent outdoors with his family; his lovely wife Tracy who is a Registered Nurse, and his seventeen, nineteen, twenty-one, and twenty-two-year-old daughters, as well as his Labrador Retriever “Hercules.”
Captain Apitz is currently assigned at Coast Guard Headquarters as the Chief for the Office of Requirements and Analysis in the Coast Guard Capabilities Directorate (CG-7).