MCPON To Retire

After 28 years of service to his country, the Navy’s senior enlisted sailor is hanging up his uniform. Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Joe R. Campa Jr., will spend his last day in the office on Dec. 13. Campa, a Southern Californian, joined the Navy in 1980 and completed training as a hospital corpsman before joining the fleet. Tours included stints on the amphibious transport dock Ogden, dock landing ship Comstock, and destroyer Curtis Wilbur. He also served with Marine units in Okinawa and at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and as command master chief on the Guam-based submarine tender Frank Cable. Before he was selected as the Navy’s 11th MCPON in 2006, he was command master chief at Joint Task Force Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As MCPON, Campa served under two chiefs of staff — Adm. Mike Mullen (now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), and Adm. Gary Roughead.