By SUSANNA RAY
Herald Writer
After leading "the bad guys" during a training exercise near Hawaii, the USS Ingraham will return to Everett Tuesday with a new captain.
Cmdr. Steven DiNobile took over from Cmdr. Richard Fitzpatrick during a ceremony last weekend off the coast of Hawaii, where the frigate was participating in the Rim of the Pacific exercise. RIMPAC, as it’s called, is the largest maritime exercise in the world, with forces from Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom joining with U.S. forces for five weeks.
The Ingraham, a frigate with 216 sailors on board, served as the opposition force surface commander for the exercise, which ended Thursday. The Everett-based USS Abraham Lincoln also took part. The aircraft carrier returned from Hawaii last weekend.
This will be DiNobile’s second tour of duty in Everett. He was second in command aboard the USS Ford from August 1995 to October 1996. In the meantime, he received a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., where he also served as an instructor.
DiNobile is from Detroit. He is trained in nuclear propulsion and basic surface warfare and has served aboard two cruisers, a destroyer and an aircraft carrier in addition to the two Everett-based frigates.
Before coming to Everett, Fitzpatrick was a naval aide to the president, served aboard several destroyers, a frigate and an amphibious assault ship and received a master’s degree in physics.
Fitzpatrick, originally from Coronado, Calif., was executive officer of Everett Naval Station and then commanding officer of the Everett-based USS David R. Ray, a destroyer, before becoming captain of the Ingraham.
Fitzpatrick said he, his wife and four children plan to keep their house in Mukilteo while he serves as the maritime operations officer for the carrier group that’s in charge of the USS Carl Vinson in Bremerton.
You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 425-339-3439or send e-mail to ray@heraldnet.com
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