CAPODICHINO, ITALY – Capt. Gustavo J. Vergara relieved Capt. Jerome “Jerry” Zinni as Commanding Officer of Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center (FDRMC) during a change of command and retirement ceremony held on Naval Support Activity (NSA) Capodichino, Italy, July 7.
FDRMC’s immediate superior in command, Rear Adm. James Downey, provided opening remarks for the ceremony, emphasizing the pivotal role of the Mediterranean Sea throughout history, and its continuing importance to the United States.
“This Center and its detachments in Rota and Bahrain are absolutely critical to the United States Navy and our ability to act and react in defense of our Nation's partners. That brings me to one of the main reasons we are all here today, to celebrate and thank Capt. Jerry Zinni for his commitment to this Navy and the overwhelming number of accomplishments on his watch.”
"Capt. Zinni, your time here has been invaluable in preserving our nation's maritime strategy and in building a capable naval force more than 4,000 miles away from our eastern seaboard. You have been instrumental in shaping our future Navy and in ensuring the success of our missions all over the world,” said Downey.
Vergara is an Engineering Duty Officer who entered the Navy through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps(NROTC) program at Duke University where he earned a degree in Mathematics in 1993. In 2009, he earned a Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering from Naval Postgraduate School. After serving aboard USS Nicholas (FFG 47) and qualified Nuclear Engineer Officer aboard the USS George Washington (CVN 73). He became an Engineering Duty Officer in 2004.
Vergara’s Engineering Duty Officer tours include: Assistant and Deputy Project Superintendent on Aircraft Carriers and Assistant Business and Strategic Planning Officer at Norfolk Naval Shipyard; Deputy Project Superintendent on Submarines at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard; Engineer Officer aboard USS George Washington (CVN 73); Operations Officer and Engineering and Planning Officer at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility; and Military Deputy for Shipyard Operations at Naval Sea Systems Command’s Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations Directorate.
After relaying how impressed he was with the skill and expertise of the men and women at all the Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center sites, Vergara said, “A little more than three years ago I read a Navy press release talking about the establishment of the Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center in Naples …. I remember clearly thinking to myself that FDRMC would be my dream job.”
Zinni retired from active duty after 29 years of honorable naval service. He served as the first commanding officer of FDRMC from June 2014 until July 2017.
Zinni is a 1988 graduate of the University of Rochester, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a NROTC commission. He earned his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California, in 1996.
He was designated an Engineering Duty Officer in 1998 after his chief engineer tour on USS Defender (MCM-2). His Engineering Duty Officer tours of duty included the Ship Repair Facility in Yokosuka, Japan; Production Officer for LPD-19 and DD(X) and LCS-1 Program Manager’s Representative at SUPSHIP Gulf Coast; Program Executive Office Ships for duty as Aegis Shipbuilding Production Officer; and Director of Operations and the executive officer for Supervisor of Shipbuilding in Bath, Maine.
In addition, he had tours as the Main Propulsion Assistant on USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) and a six-month tour of duty with the Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq as the project manager for the Qudas Power Plant Expansion Project during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Zinni took command of FDRMC Naples, Italy, and its detachments located in Manama, Bahrain, and Rota, Spain, on June 30, 2014.
FDRMC is headquartered in Naples, and has two detachments (det.) in Manama, Bahrain, and Rota, Spain. Each location provides slightly different services. Naples provides command and control functions coupled with an extensive capability in Distance Support, Fleet Technical Assistance (FTA), and Voyage Repair for ships operating throughout the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Gulf. Det. Rota provides Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) availabilities and Continuous Maintenance Availability (CMAV) oversight to four homeported Aegis-capable destroyers. Det. Bahrain provides FTA, CNO availability and CMAV oversight to four mine countermeasure ships and 10 Coastal Patrol ships home ported in Bahrain; and voyage repair for ships operating throughout the Arabian Gulf.
The command’s mission is to provide sustainment, fleet technical assistance, depot level ship repair and modernization, and voyage repair of naval ships and craft in U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibilities.
For more news visit www.navsea.navy.mil.