POINT MUGU : Navy Squadron Gets Award, New Leader

The Naval Reserve Patrol Squadron at the Point Mugu Naval Air Station received the chief of naval operations’ Aviation Safety Award on Saturday and its outgoing commanding officer was pinned with a meritorious service medal during change-of-command ceremonies.

Rear Adm. Richard K. Chambers, commander of the Naval Air Reserve Force, made the presentations during ceremonies installing Cmdr. Harry Rector III as the squadron’s new commanding officer. The Thousand Oaks resident relieved newly promoted Capt. Gregory Brose of Ventura.

Brose, who received the medal, was praised by Chambers for “taking a good squadron and making it better.” Chambers commended the squadron for its more than 74,000-hour safety record since it was commissioned in 1970.

The squadron consists of about 500 naval reservists from as far away as Utah and New Mexico. They train on weekends and make summer deployments to Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines and Guam, where they work with regular Navy units.

The squadron received this year’s Aviation Safety Award, for which it competed with 13 naval reserve patrol squadrons throughout the world.

Both Rector and Brose are citizen sailors. Rector is senior vice president for INFOTEC of Camarillo, an aerospace company, and Brose is a deputy district attorney for Ventura County who is serving as supervisor of the Consumer and Environmental Protection Division.

Point Mugu’s Patrol Squadron 65, nicknamed the Tridents, flies eight P-3B Orion aircraft. Its primary mission is to detect, track and destroy enemy submarines. Its secondary missions include laying mines, shipping surveillance, reconnaissance and search and rescue.

Rector, who has been selected for a promotion to captian, has been in the squadron two years and serves as its executive officer. He received a bachelor’s degree at Indiana University in June, 1969, and earned his aviator wings in 1972. He also has a master’s degree in business from Pepperdine University.

Brose is being assigned to a volunteer training unit at Moffett Field Naval Air Station for further orders. He is a native of York, Pa. He was commissioned upon his graduation in the NROTC program at Ohio State University in August, 1968 and received his naval flight officer wings in 1969.