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Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Adm. Mark Ferguson congratulates Fleet Master Chief JoAnn Ortloff during her retirement ceremony on Friday, March 20, 2015. Ortloff, who joined the Navy in 1982, was the most senior enlisted active-duty female in the Navy at the time of her retirement.

Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Adm. Mark Ferguson congratulates Fleet Master Chief JoAnn Ortloff during her retirement ceremony on Friday, March 20, 2015. Ortloff, who joined the Navy in 1982, was the most senior enlisted active-duty female in the Navy at the time of her retirement. (Courtesy U.S. Navy)

NAPLES, Italy — The Navy’s most senior active-duty enlisted female sailor retired during a ceremony Friday at the Navy base here.

Fleet Master Chief JoAnn Ortloff of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa formally ended her 33-year Navy career surrounded by friends, family and colleagues at the base theater in Capodichino. Also attending the event was Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens.

Ortloff joined the Navy in 1982 and began her career as an air traffic controller. She was selected to the master chief program in 2003 and has served as a command master chief aboard the destroyer USS Milius and at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam. She served as fleet master chief for U.S. 3rd Fleet before being chosen in 2012 to be fleet master chief for NAVEUR-AF, the command said in a news release.

Master Chief Petty Officer Steve Giordano assumed Ortloff’s role of senior enlisted leader for the fleet on Friday.

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