SAN FRANCISCO – Lt. Cmdr. Roy Brubaker will relieve Cmdr. Steven Wittrock as commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Aspen, homeported at Yerba Buena Island, during a change of command ceremony held at Coast Guard Sector San Francisco, June 19, at 11:00 a.m.
Brubaker succeeds Wittrock, who will be departing to Washington, D.C. for his next assignment as a program reviewer at Coast Guard Headquarters.
Brubaker recently departed the Seventh Coast Guard District located in Miami, Fla., where he worked as chief of the Waterways Management Branch. His past assignments include commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Henry Blake, senior training liaison officer at the Afloat Training Group in Mayport, Fla., commanding officer of the Coast Guard Cutter Kingfisher, and a tour on Coast Guard Cutters Gentian and Elm. He graduated from the Coast Guard Officer Candidate School in February, 1998. During his six years of service prior to attending the Officer Candidate School, he served aboard Coast Guard Cutters Confidence, Naushon, Point Evans, and Staten Island, which culminated his advancement to quartermaster 1st class.
As a 225-foot Juniper Class Sea Going Buoy Tender, the Aspen’s mission areas include, aids to navigation, search and rescue, law enforcement, maritime homeland security, and marine environmental protection. Coast Guard Cutter Aspen is responsible for maintaining over 120 aids to navigation along the coast of California and is also deployed throughout the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
A change of command ceremony is a time-honored naval tradition, which formally restates to the officers and crew of a unit, the continuity and authority of command. It involves the total transfer of responsibility, authority and accountability from one individual to another.
