![]() Marshall III.Īnd while he's proud of what he has done in his many sea and shore duties over the years, he cites as his top accomplishment what he oversaw here in the Pacific Northwest since 1996.Īfter presiding over the mid-'90s closure of all naval activities in the San Francisco Bay area, including the shuttering of the 142-year-old Mare Island Naval Shipyard, he moved to the Puget Sound region, where many of those activities and ships were transferred. "I read that and said, 'Boy, I'd love to be the captain of a cruiser one day.' And the Navy was gracious enough to give me that opportunity."Ĭenter would go on to command three surface ships during his 35-year Navy career, which ends Tuesday with his retirement and turning over of the regional command to Rear Adm. "It all started from that book," the commander of Navy Region Northwest said last week. It was "Sea Fights and Shipwrecks" by World War II journalist and author Hanson Baldwin, and it included a stirring account of the USS Houston, a World War II cruiser that went down after a long, valiant stand against Japanese bombers and destroyers. ![]() William Center had no naval family traditions to guide his career choice, just a book he devoured in Boy Scouts. William Center will turn over leadership of Navy Region Northwest at a ceremony Tuesday in Seattle. ![]()
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