The next commanding officer of Naval Station Everett will certainly be able to talk shop with sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Navy Capt. Eddie Gardiner will take command of Everett’s Navy installation from Capt. Dan Squires in August.
Squires, who has been the commander of Naval Station Everett since 2001, is retiring from the Navy and will become operations manager for the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office. He starts that job in September.
A native of St. Louis, Mo., Gardiner joined the Navy in 1969 and worked his way up to officer through the enlisted ranks. He received nuclear power training soon after enlisting and qualified as a nuclear engineering officer of the watch as a machinist’s mate aboard the USS Bainbridge.
Gardiner later was promoted to chief petty officer after he transferred to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. He received his commission through the Limited Duty Officer Program in 1979 and returned to the Eisenhower as a reactor mechanical technical assistant. Gardiner also served aboard the carriers USS Theodore Roosevelt and USS George Washington.
Gardiner became director of the Navy’s Nuclear Field “A” School at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Orlando, Fla., in 1997. He also has served as executive officer of the USS Frank Cable, a submarine tender based in Guam.
Currently commanding officer of Naval Support Activity La Maddalena, on the island of La Maddalena, Italy, Gardiner is expected to leave that assignment Aug. 12.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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