Editing John Poindexter (section)

==Senior naval career==
While commander of Destroyer Squadron 31, Poindexter was [[surface warfare]] and [[anti-submarine warfare]] commander of battle groups in the Western Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, and he developed new tactics and battle management procedures under the Composite Warfare Commander concept. As the commanding officer of {{USS|England|DLG-22|6}}, he pioneered the shipboard use of computers to manage the ship's force portion of yard overhauls. He was also an executive officer and a chief engineer of destroyers.

As deputy commander of the [[Naval Education and Training Command]], he led the United States Navy's extensive education and training programs. He launched the development of a distributed [[data management]] system to better manage training pipelines.

His staff assignments included: executive assistant to the [[Chief of Naval Operations]], administrative assistant to the [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]] and special assistant for Systems Analysis to the [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]]. He reached the rank of [[Vice Admiral (United States)|vice admiral]] while serving as National Security Advisor, but was reverted to the rank of [[Rear Admiral (United States)|rear admiral]] in 1986 for his role in the [[Iran–Contra affair]]. He retired at that rank in 1987.<ref>{{Cite web|last=L.A. Time Archives|date=March 3, 1987|title=Poindexter Opts for Demotion, to Stay in Navy |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-03-mn-7536-story.html|access-date=November 2, 2021|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Chang |first=Kenneth |url=https://www.nytimes.com/keyword/vice-admiral |title=New York Times |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 1, 2013}}</ref>