Bobby Ray Inman is a retired United States Navy admiral who held several influential positions in the United States Intelligence Community. Inman is mainly known for holding executive leadership positions at virtually all major U.S. intelligence agencies and for his brief but controversial 1993 nomination to become U.S. Secretary of Defense, which was ultimately unsuccessful. His thirty-one-year military career, which began with his commissioning in the Naval Reserve in 1952, culminated in him achieving the permanent rank of four-star Admiral, becoming the first naval intelligence specialist to ever attain that rank.