POINT MUGU : Navy Official Calls End to Long Career

Capt. Samuel L. Vernallis, the longtime vice commander of Point Mugu’s Pacific Missile Test Center, will retire Friday after 30 years in the Navy.

Vernallis, who now heads the Fighter Systems Department at Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station, has no formal plans for his retirement, spokesman Bob Hubbert said.

He arrived at Point Mugu in 1987 as vice commander of the Pacific Missile Test Center. From May to September, 1988, he served as commander of the center.

Vernallis entered the Navy through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was commissioned in 1962 upon graduation from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in electrical engineering.

During 1965 and 1967 in the Vietnam War, he completed two combat tours in the Gulf of Tonkin and was one of the early instructors in the “Top Gun” Naval Fighter Weapons School at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego.

He has received a number of awards during his career, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Vernallis will celebrate his retirement at 2 p.m. Friday at the headquarters of the Naval Air Warfare Cen ter Weapons Division.

His retirement party will include speeches by Rear Adm. George H. Strohsahl Jr., commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center in Washington, D.C., and Rear Adm. William E. Newman, commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division.

During his career at Point Mugu, Vernallis helped raise about $4 million in donations for United Way in Ventura County with the participation of 30,000 military and civilian donors, Hubbert said.