Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station to Get New Commander

Capt. Selwyn S. Laughter, who will become the new head of the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station on Friday, said he was never teased about his name until he entered the U. S. Naval Academy at 18 years of age.

In the small Mississippi town of Batesville, where he grew up, a lot of people have the name Laughter. It is pronounced LAW-ter, he said.

But at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., some classmates combined his first and last names to call him either Seldom Laughter or Sel-Dumb Laughter, he said.

“I just basically tried not to get annoyed,” he added.

The 43-year-old captain, who will oversee 900 employees at the naval air weapons station, said despite the old nicknames, he is not humorless.

He maintains a serious demeanor on the job, he said, but added, “When the day’s over and the weekend comes, I like to have a good time.”

Still, some employees of Point Mugu--one of four bases that make up the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center--said their future boss appears to be a different breed of Navy man than the gregarious commanding officer he is replacing--Capt. Paul J. Valovich, known as “Booger.”

Valovich, 50, who is completing a three-year term as head of the naval air weapons station, is moving to San Pedro. He will take over next week as deputy program director for the Military Satellite Communication office, a joint Navy-Air Force operation, in Los Angeles.

Valovich is “more on the rugged side, but he’s wonderful, soft-hearted,” Dolores Reicherts, the commanding officer’s executive secretary, said.

“Capt. Laughter is more soft-spoken, more organized, very meticulous. It’s just a different style entirely.”

On his off time, Laughter said he enjoys golf and spending time with his wife Jan, and young children, Jesse, 7, and Eva, 3.

In contrast, Valovich, whose children are grown, is known for taking two-week backpacking trips alone in the mountains.

Point Mugu spokesman Alan Alpers said Laughter’s more polished style may reflect that “he’s an academy grad.”

Valovich, a Vietnam veteran, earned his bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in Indiana and his master’s in aeronautical engineering from the Navy’s postgraduate school in Monterey.

Laughter went straight to the Naval Academy from his high school in Batesville, where his father, a former Marine, was postmaster.

By the time Laughter had graduated from the academy in 1972, U.S. forces were withdrawing from Vietnam.

Laughter went on to Navy flight school and in the fall of 1990 he was commanding officer of a squadron that was sent to the Persian Gulf during the buildup to the Gulf War.

Although Laughter may have a lower-key personality than his predecessor, he said he plans to be just as active in his new position.

Using one of the acronym-titles common in the military, Laughter said his management-style is “MBWA,” or “management by walking around.”

“You can be the commanding officer of the base and sit behind the desk and sign papers,” he said. “But you don’t really have the big picture and know what’s going on out there on base unless you’re out there experiencing it.”

As commanding officer of the naval air weapons station, Laughter’s job is to serve as landlord for the entire 4,500-acre base, including its 29 tenant commands, which range from marine detachments to helicopter squadrons.

In addition to the 900 civilian and military personnel directly employed by the naval air weapons station, another 8,000 men and women work at Point Mugu--either for military commands that rent space at Point Mugu or defense contractors.

And about 2,000 military people and their families live at the base.

Everything from Point Mugu’s 568 units of base housing to its 119 miles of roads, its library, bowling alley and Fire Department will be under Laughter’s control.

The job will be a new experience for Laughter, who has spent most of his 20 years with the Navy as a test pilot.

Although he has previously served in other command posts, including his most recent assignment as director of a 1,200-person aircraft-testing unit in Maryland, the other jobs have all been geared toward flying and supervising other pilots.

As part of the Navy’s elite aviation community, Laughter said he always took for granted that all of the Navy’s support services--from gymnasiums to housing--would be available to him.

“Now,” he said, “I have the opportunity to give something back.”

But he said he realizes that he will be presiding over Point Mugu at a time of tumultuous change in the Navy.

Congress may issue a decision next month on whether to lift the ban on gays in the military.

“We will do what they ask us to do,” he said.

And Laughter must manage the delicate task of gradually shrinking the base’s work force, in accordance with the Navy’s goals for downsizing, while keeping up morale.

“It’s not all dread and gloom,” Laughter said. “If we’re coming down in people and we’re coming down in money, we don’t need to be walking around with our heads down. We need to enjoy life.”