Walsh Turns Over Command to Vandiver
Training Air Wing FIVE will observe a change at the helm tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the Naval Air Station Whiting Field auditorium. Col. John Walsh will pass the reins of the command to Capt. James Vandiver.
Walsh was the first Marine commanding officer of the Training Wing.
He has been serving in the Marine Corps for nearly 25-years since his graduation from the University of California, Berkeley. Walsh was an honor graduate of both the Platoon Leaders Course and USMC Basic School. Designated a Naval aviator in 1988, his first assignment was to Marine Corps Aviation School at Cherry Point, N.C. for training in the AV-8B Harrier.
Since then, Walsh has deployed during the Gulf War, served in various Marine Expeditionary Units, graduated from the U.S. Naval War College with distinction and performed two tours at Marine Corps Headquarters. He has also served as the executive officer and commanding officer of Training Squadron SIX here at Whiting Field. His most recent assignment before returning to Milton, Fla., was at the USAF Air War College where he graduated with highest distinction in 2006.
During his tenure as the deputy commodore and then as the commodore of TRAWING-5, Walsh oversaw the training of more than 1,400 aviators and more than 378,000 flight hours. Time needed to train the aviators decreased for both the primary fixed-wing and rotary training pipelines. Helicopter training standards were set to such a high level during his command that only one student attrited from the Fleet Replacement Squadron in the past two years. He also guided the Wing through the early stages of transition to the first new fixed-wing aircraft for training at NAS Whiting Field in more than 30-years.
Vandiver has been serving as the deputy commodore for TRAWING-5 since September 2008. Prior to his arrival, he most recently worked as the Antisubmarine Warfare Section Head and later as Maritime Warfare Systems/Surface Strike Branch Head for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Director of Surface Warfare (N86) in Washington D.C. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval War College which he graduated from in 2005. Prior to that, he served as the executive officer and commanding officer of Training Squadron TWENTY-SEVEN in Corpus Christi, Tex.
He will now assume command of the Navy's largest Training Wing which flies approximately 44 percent of the Chief of Naval Air Training flight hours. Col. James Grace will become the new deputy commodore.
The guest speaker for the event will be Brig. Gen. Jon Davis, the deputy commandant for aviation, U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters.
