Cmdr. Edwin Lebron salutes Commodore Mark Klatt, COMDESRON 14, after relieving Cmdr. Michael A. Strano as commanding officer of USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49) on July 9. -Photo by PH2(NAC) Alesha A. Stanaitis

Robert G. Bradley Holds Change Of Command

From Ensign Neil Skerratt
USS Robert G. Bradley PAO

Cmdr. Michael A. Strano was relieved by Cmdr. Edwin Lebron as commanding officer of USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49) on July 9, during a change of command ceremony on board the ship at Naval Station Mayport. Commodore Mark D. Klatt, COMDESRON 14, was the guest speaker.

Lebron is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and a 1984 graduate of Southern New Hampshire University, receiving his commission from Officer Candidate School in 1986. His first sea duty tour was as DCA and Weapons Officer in USS Hepburn (FF 1055) from July 1987 to February 1990. His Department Head tours were as Combat Systems Officer in USS Wadsworth (FFG 9) from November 1992 to August 1994, and as Combat Systems Officer for COMDESRON 24 from July 1996 to February 1997.

He was assigned as Flag Secretary for USCOMSOLANT from February 1997 to July 1999. He then served as Executive Officer in USS Lassen (DDG 82) from January 2000 to June 2002. He is reporting to Robert G. Bradley from COMSIXTHFLT where he served as the Surface Operations Officers for Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Strano, a native of Hammonton, New Jersey graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was commissioned in 1984. His first fleet assignment was onboard USS Farragut (DDG 37) as Communications Officer and Main Propulsion Officer. After a tour at COMDESRON Two as the staff Administrative Officer, he reported to and graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

Strano's Department Head tours were as Combat Systems Officer in USS Spruance (DD 963) from December 1991 to May 1993 and as First Lieutenant in USS Wasp (LHD 1) from July 1993 to October 1994. Ashore he served in Washington, DC as the Head of the Bonus Programs Branch (Pers-204) in the Bureau of Naval Personnel and as Special Assistant for Military Compensation, POM and Budgeting on the Secretary of the Navy's staff.

In December 1998, Strano assumed command of USS Oriole (MHC 55). He attended the U.S. Army Senior War College in Carlisle, Penn., graduating with a Masters in National Strategic Studies. He then reported to Cruiser-Destroyer Group 12, embarked in USS Enterprise (CVN 65), as the Surface Operations Officer during her Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Gulf Deployment conducting Maritime Interdic-tion Operations and air strikes into Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch.

Strano assumed command of Robert G. Bradley on Sept. 6, 2002. Since taking command, he led his ship through two inter-deployment readiness cycles (IDRC), and an extremely successful six-month SOUTHCOM Deployment where the ship participated in UNITAS 45-04 and counter narcotics operations. While on Deployment, the ship intercepted 1.8 tons of cocaine aboard a smuggling vessel at sea and diverted 1.3 tons of cocaine from another vessel. For these actions, Robert G. Bradley was awarded the US Coast Guard Special Operations Service Award. During this Deployment, RGB acted as Search and Rescue On-Scene Commander for two P-3 aircraft, a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft, and two Costa Rican patrol boats in search of nine fishermen lost at sea for 22 days. Four of the fishermen were rescued with Robert G. Bradley providing medical attention to them.

Robert G. Bradley was the first ship to circumnavigate South America since 1998 as part of UNITAS. Sailing through the Chilean Inland Waterways and Strait of Magellan, RGB joined 14 other vessels from five nations as part of the major multi-national exercise in Puerto Belgrano, Argentina. Upon completion of the exercise, RGB hosted a reception in Montevideo, Uruguay for the U.S Ambassador and the Ambassadors from Russia, Japan, China, European Union, and another reception in Rio de Janeiro for the U.S General Consul and General Consuls from Norway, France, and Poland.

In addition to being an ambassador of the Navy, RGB Sailors participated in two large community relations projects in Montevideo refurbishing and installing a computer classroom at the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and refurbishing the Franklin Delano Roosevelt monument.

Following deployment, Strano led his ship through her maintenance period, a nine-week, multi-million dollar, Ship's Restricted Availability, where the ship received the new Close In Weapons System Block 1B, and the WSN-7 Laser Ring Gyrocompass system. Since the beginning of this readiness cycle, RGB has completed the Afloat Training Group N82 Engineering Initial Assessment where she completed all cold/hot checks by 1500 on Day One, and got underway on Day Two earning the highest drill grades for a DESRON 14 ship at IA. Completing a DESRON 14 Group Sail CART II allowed RGB to get ahead in the cycle by completing several CIWS/76mm gunnery exercises. RGB excelled by completing an Aviation Certification two months ahead of schedule and a ATFP Certification two months before its Final Evaluation.

More recently, RGB completed her ATG N82 Engineering Underway Demonstration where the Senior Assessor noted that of the 77 ships he has inspected in two years, RGB was the only one he assigned a grade of ''above average'' in material condition and ''effective'' in cleanliness, stowage, and preservation.

Strano's next assignment will be as the Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Financial Management in Washington, DC.

Robert G. Bradley is the 42nd ship of the Oliver Hazard Perry Class of Guided Missile Frigates and was designed to provide local area protection to Carrier Strike Groups, underway replenishment groups, amphibious groups, and other military shipping from subsurface, air, and surface threats. The ship was commissioned in Bath, Maine on June 30, 1984. A ceremonial commissioning took place on August 11, 1984 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the ship was subsequently homeported in Charleston, S.C. Robert G. Bradley shifted homeport from Charleston to Norfolk, Virginia in 1995 and then again a second time, arriving in Mayport in August 1997.