NAPLES, Italy — To say that Master Chief Petty Officer Anthony Evangelista hit the ground running when he took over as the new Naval Forces Europe senior enlisted member in late March may be an understatement.
In his first month on the job, he made whirlwind trips to visit sailors and families in London; Rota, Spain; Sigonella, Sicily; La Maddalena, Sardinia; and Gaeta and Naples, Italy.
This week he’s been to Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Crete, and is meeting with Navy personnel stationed in Germany.
“I am an advocate for all of those folks,” Evangelista said last week in his temporary office at Naval Support Activity Naples. “I plan to … go out and visit the tremendous sailors and the Navy families in Europe.”
Evangelista is one of the four top enlisted leaders in the Navy. He shares the title “force master chief” with only two other master chief petty officers — those of the Pacific and Atlantic fleets — and only Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Terry Scott is senior to the three in the enlisted ranks.
With that position comes a broad job description, Evangelista said, that includes both meeting the needs of the four-star European commander and those of a junior deck seaman in what is a demanding time for the Navy.
“The average sailor understands that 9/11 taught us that this fight is different,” he said.
About 38,000 sailors are permanently based in Europe, Evangelista said, and more deploy into the Naval Forces Europe theater.
These forces, he said, are supporting a variety of missions.
Sailors are stationed with NATO commands in Norway and have met U.S. European Command requirements with USS Emory S. Land’s recent African Gulf of Guinea cruise. Sailors from Europe are serving as guards in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and 14 sailors from the Land recently returned from a deployment to Kuwait where they welded armor plating on Army Humvees, Evangelista said.
Evangelista also works with the other force master chiefs and the MCPON on issues ranging from the Navy’s Task Force Uniform program, which is working to change the clothing in a sailor’s sea bag, to developing curriculum at recruit training and service school commands.
Evangelista brings more than 25 years of service to the post, including deployments with the Marines during the invasion of Grenada and in Lebanon. He’s also done tours on two cruisers, an aircraft carrier and most recently served as Naval Air Station Sigonella’s command master chief.
But, Evangelista said, there’s always something new in the Navy.
“I’m a student,” he said. “I learn a new thing every day and it’s [usually] from younger and younger sailors.”
