Prueher started his career in the United States Navy as Midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1960. He flew as an A-6 Intruder in the Vietnam War. In the later part of his career, he was the seventy-third Commandant of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Prueher attained the rank of admiral as Commander Carrier Group One in 1991. He was appointed Commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet from 1993 to 1995. He was Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1995 to 1996, and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Command from 1996 to 1999.[3]
He was posted as ambassador to China from November 1999 to May 2001. Prueher negotiated the settlement and delivered the "letter of the two sorries" which defused the Hainan Island incident in 2001.[citation needed] He then joined Stanford University's Institute of International Studies as Consulting Professor in 2001.[4]
Prueher is currently the James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia, as well as Senior Advisor to the Stanford-Harvard Preventive Defense Project, working on dialogue for US-China security matters.[citation needed]
In December 1998 he was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia "for distinguished service in the promotion of Australian and United States of America Defence relations".[5]
Prueher is a director of Fluor Corporation, Irving, Texas; Emerson Electric Co., St. Louis, Missouri; and AMERIGROUP Corporation, Virginia Beach, Virginia.[7]
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