Capt. Thomas Dickinson is a native of Whitehall, MI. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and earned a Master of Business Administration at the Naval Postgraduate School.
His initial assignments at sea were aboard USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) as Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer, and then USS Champion (MCM 4) as Operations Officer. Dickinson’s Department Head assignments were as Weapons Officer and Combat Systems Officer on USS The Sullivans (DDG 68).
Dickinson served as Executive Officer of USS Barry (DDG 52) from May 2011 to November 2012 and assumed command of Barry from November 2012 to April 2014. During his command tour, Barry completed a nine-month Ballistic Missile Defense deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and earned the Battle “E.”
Ashore, Dickinson served as a Surface Warfare Officer detailer for PERS-41 at the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, TN. He also served as a Major Defense Acquisition Program analyst in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Upon completion of command-at-sea, Dickinson was a Prospective Commanding Officer Course instructor at the Naval Leadership and Ethics Command in Newport, RI.
In 2016, Dickinson became an Acquisition Professional in the Surface Community, serving in Program Executive Office, Integrated Warfare Systems 1.0 as the Fleet Introduction Program Manager for AEGIS Ashore. From October 2018 to July 2021, he served as the AEGIS BMD Weapon Systems Program Manager at the Missile Defense Agency in Dahlgren, VA. From August 2021 to August 2022, Dickinson served as Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition.
In 2014, Captain Dickinson was awarded the Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Award for Inspirational Leadership. In 2020, he was the inaugural recipient of the Rear Admiral “Deak” Parsons Award for Program Management Excellence.