Port Hueneme : New Commander Takes Over at Base

Nearly 1,400 Seabees lined the parade field at the Naval Construction Battalion Center on Tuesday to bid farewell to Capt. Rufus J. Pearson III, retiring base commander.

And they welcomed new commander Capt. David J. Nash, a former commander of public works at Pearl Harbor.

Walking side by side to the beat of a Marine Corps marching band, the two officers reviewed the troops and then transferred authority with a ceremonial passing of the flags.

“Stand tall, Seabees,” Pearson told to the troops. “You have done yourselves proud.”

Pearson, 50, has been a Seabee for 28 years and had been in command of the Port Hueneme installation since 1989.

He will move to Chicago to accept an engineering job at Loyola University Medical Center, he said.

“I wanted to stay in California, but they made me an offer I could not refuse,” said Pearson of his decision to relocate his family for the 19th time in his career.

Between September and late February, more than 1,200 Seabees from Pearson’s command deployed to Saudi Arabia where they built strong-backed tents for 50,000 Marines in Operation Desert Storm.

At one point, heavy equipment crews worked around the clock to rebuild washed-out roads in two weeks.

Nash, a civil engineer whose experience includes a construction assignment at Point Mugu in 1970, is reporting for a two-year stay, a Navy spokeswoman said.

His last job was at the historic Hawaiian naval base where he commanded 1,350 civilians employed in building-maintenance and transportation services. Nash has been in the Navy for 25 years, officials said.