U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Patrick Piercey, director of maritime operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, has been named commander of the naval surface force for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, announced Piercey’s new assignment in a Defense Department news release published Wednesday.
The 31-year Navy veteran has held leadership roles in several maritime assignments, such as commander of the carrier strike group 9 onboard USS George Washington (CVN 73) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) as well as combat systems and weapons officer aboard USS Thomas S. Gates (CG 51).
He served as a special assistant to the deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, policy planner at the chief of naval operations’ office and the Joint Staff within the directorate for strategy and policy’s space and ballistic missile branch.
The Defense Superior Service Medal recipient is a former deputy director of plans, policy and strategy at the U.S. European Command.
COMNAVSURFLANT is one of the six Navy type commands that operates with approximately 25,000 personnel and more than 60 destroyers, frigates and cruiser ships that work to maintain military readiness against hostile ground, air and maritime targets as well as support drug interdiction operations in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea.
