The officers and crew of the guided missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102) held a change-of-command ceremony on board the ship at Naval Base San Diego, June 16.
During the ceremony, Cmdr. Patrick H. O’Mahoney relieved Cmdr. Steven M. Foley as the ship’s commanding officer.
Capt. Paul H. Hogue, commander of Destroyer Squadron 23, served as the guest speaker for the event.
Foley, who first reported to Sampson in September 2013 as the ship’s executive officer, took command of the ship in November 2013. His next assignment will be at Tactical Training Group Pacific in San Diego.
Before arriving to Sampson as the ship’s executive officer in October of 2013, O’Mahoney served as congressional liaison for the Secretary of the Navy in the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs in Washington DC. He previously commanded the mine countermeasures ship USS Defender (MCM 2), serving as part of the Forward Deployed Naval Forces in Sasebo, Japan.
Sampson and its crew of more than 300 recently returned from a 212-day independent deployment to the Asia-Pacific region.
DDG 102 is the fourth U.S. destroyer named after Rear Adm. William Thomas Sampson, who served from 1857 to 1902, and commanded the North Atlantic Station during the Spanish-American War in 1898.
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Image: US Navy