{"id":8812,"date":"2023-05-04T23:50:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T23:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=8812"},"modified":"2023-05-05T06:48:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T06:48:57","slug":"niwc-pacific-holds-change-of-command-retirement-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=8812","title":{"rendered":"NIWC Pacific Holds Change of Command, Retirement Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<p>As commanding officer, McKenna will lead more than 5,200 civilian employees and military members across the globe in serving NIWC Pacific\u2019s information warfare mission.<\/p>\n<p>A native of Middleton, Wisconsin, McKenna\u2019s naval career began in 2000 at Officer Candidate School in Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Since then, he has logged more than 3,000 flight hours as an operational aviator and served in various leadership roles, including lead project officer and department head, as well as commanding officer for USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).<\/p>\n<p>Prior to assuming command at NIWC Pacific, he served as Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) Commander Rear Adm. Doug Small\u2019s executive assistant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe technology here is amazing, and the capability we deliver to the fleet is vital, but first and foremost, it\u2019s the workforce here that\u2019s been the most awe inspiring and has me most excited about what the next 36 months will bring,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cI\u2019m inheriting that workforce, and that is one hundred percent a testament to Capt. Gainer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the retirement portion of the ceremony, Small, presiding officer of the change of command ceremony, thanked Gainer for his leadership over the last six years, first as executive officer then as commanding officer: \u201cNIWC Pacific plays an outsized role in preparing the Navy for whatever\u2019s next in the strategic powers competition. Capt. Gainer has been at the heart of making sure the constant sense of urgency, associated with that competition, is brought to bear here every single day. I\u2019m sure Capt. McKenna will do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Small presented Gainer with the Legion of Merit award for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service during his tours at NIWC Pacific. In the award summary, Small highlighted his \u201csignificant, positive impact\u201d while leading the Navy\u2019s largest command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR), cyber, and space warfare center: \u201cCapt. Gainer\u2019s technical acumen, vision, and focused leadership were instrumental in enabling NIWC Pacific\u2019s leading role in reshaping 21st century warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under his leadership, NIWC Pacific managed more than 600 technical projects and delivered more than $8 billion of C4ISR, cyber, and space capabilities to the fleet.<\/p>\n<p>When Gainer, a native of Bellingham, Washington, assumed command in May 2020, it was in a socially-distanced, limited-attendance ceremony in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Today he retired after 30 years of naval service surrounded by family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s important to me that we recognize this career as a joint effort,\u201d Gainer said, highlighting teams and initiatives at the Center exemplifying the collaborative culture needed to accomplish its mission. \u201cWe\u2019ll never be done fortifying our culture \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s a 24\/7, 365-day a year job,\u201d Gainer said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m proud of every team or activity that shines a light on how we\u2019re all interconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NIWC Pacific\u2019s mission is to conduct research, development, engineering, and support of integrated command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber, and space systems across all warfighting domains, and to rapidly prototype, conduct test and evaluation, and provide acquisition, installation, and in-service engineering support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As commanding officer, McKenna will lead more than 5,200 civilian employees and military members across the globe in serving NIWC Pacific\u2019s information warfare mission. A native of Middleton, Wisconsin, McKenna\u2019s naval career began in 2000 at Officer Candidate School in Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Since then, he has logged more than 3,000 flight hours [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8815,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8812\/revisions\/8815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}