The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is building an artificial intelligence (AI)-ready force the way a teaching hospital trains clinicians: rigorous classroom learning, side-by-side practice on world-class technology, and real problems. Through its Artificial Intelligence Task Force (AITF), Digital Trident AI Challenge, and academic and leadership programs, NPS pairs tiered AI education with secure, scalable compute and operator-in-the-loop experimentation so students and faculty can turn promising ideas into useful capabilities that commands can adopt.