by Leah Eclavea

Guam - There's a new person in charge of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas. "I am proud to wear this recognition as a testimony to all that has been done by this hard working professional organization that I have had the privilege to lead," announced Captain Peter Lynch.

Saying his goodbyes to Guam, the now-former NAVFAC Marianas commanding officer reflected on his last couple of years here. Lynch continued, "In the past two years our command, my command, has done remarkable things, we've tripled in size meeting an increasing work load to join with our teammates at Andersen Air Force Base as part of the establishment as Joint Region Marianas."

Captain Lynch also was involved with the groundbreaking of the new Naval Hospital in Agana Heights, received multiple awards for community service both on- and off-base, as well as handled various challenges regarding the military buildup. Lynch handed over the reigns to Captain John Heckmann, Jr. who arrives from Norfolk, Virginia where he served as the executive officer of NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic.

"Captain Heckmann is no stranger to the island, he says he was here 18 years ago, and he now follows three key principles," said Lynch. The first being mission execution, to provide support for those who are serving here and abroad, followed by integrity, to manage the resources entrusted in servicemembers. "And lastly leadership - this commands greatest asset is of course its people, through engaged leadership starting with myself and throughout the rest of the command, we are going to take care of our personnel so we can absolutely leverage of all the talents of our people to get this tremendous mission accomplished. And there's going to be tremendous challenges out there we are going to face," he added.

With Captain Heckmann standing ready to execute his mission, Captain Lynch departed with the final blowing of the whistle and ringing of the bell, departing with honors.