As commanding officer, McKenna will lead greater than 5,200 civilian workers and army members throughout the globe in serving NIWC Pacific’s info warfare mission.
A local of Middleton, Wisconsin, McKenna’s naval profession started in 2000 at Officer Candidate Faculty in Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Since then, he has logged greater than 3,000 flight hours as an operational aviator and served in varied management roles, together with lead challenge officer and division head, in addition to commanding officer for USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).
Previous to assuming command at NIWC Pacific, he served as Naval Info Warfare Techniques Command (NAVWAR) Commander Rear Adm. Doug Small’s govt assistant.
“The expertise right here is superb, and the aptitude we ship to the fleet is significant, however at the beginning, it’s the workforce right here that’s been essentially the most awe inspiring and has me most enthusiastic about what the subsequent 36 months will convey,” McKenna stated. “I’m inheriting that workforce, and that’s a hundred percent a testomony to Capt. Gainer.”
Throughout the retirement portion of the ceremony, Small, presiding officer of the change of command ceremony, thanked Gainer for his management over the past six years, first as govt officer then as commanding officer: “NIWC Pacific performs an outsized function in making ready the Navy for no matter’s subsequent within the strategic powers competitors. Capt. Gainer has been on the coronary heart of constructing certain the fixed sense of urgency, related to that competitors, is dropped at bear right here each single day. I’m certain Capt. McKenna will do the identical.”
Small introduced Gainer with the Legion of Advantage award for exceptionally meritorious conduct within the efficiency of excellent service throughout his excursions at NIWC Pacific. Within the award abstract, Small highlighted his “important, constructive affect” whereas main the Navy’s largest command, management, communications, computer systems, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR), cyber, and area warfare heart: “Capt. Gainer’s technical acumen, imaginative and prescient, and targeted management have been instrumental in enabling NIWC Pacific’s main function in reshaping twenty first century warfare.”
Underneath his management, NIWC Pacific managed greater than 600 technical initiatives and delivered greater than $8 billion of C4ISR, cyber, and area capabilities to the fleet.
When Gainer, a local of Bellingham, Washington, assumed command in Could 2020, it was in a socially-distanced, limited-attendance ceremony within the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. As we speak he retired after 30 years of naval service surrounded by household and buddies.
“It’s necessary to me that we acknowledge this profession as a joint effort,” Gainer stated, highlighting groups and initiatives on the Heart exemplifying the collaborative tradition wanted to perform its mission. “We’ll by no means be completed fortifying our tradition — it’s a 24/7, 365-day a 12 months job,” Gainer stated. “And I’m pleased with each staff or exercise that shines a lightweight on how we’re all interconnected.”
NIWC Pacific’s mission is to conduct analysis, growth, engineering, and help of built-in command, management, communications, computer systems, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber, and area techniques throughout all warfighting domains, and to quickly prototype, conduct check and analysis, and supply acquisition, set up, and in-service engineering help.
