Rear Adm. John C. Scorby has been named the next commander of Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, a position overseeing shore installations from Rota, Spain, to Djibouti and Bahrain. (Courtesy U.S. Navy)
NAPLES, Italy — The Navy has named Rear Adm. John C. Scorby the next commander of Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, a position overseeing shore installations from Rota, Spain, to Djibouti and Bahrain.
Scorby, currently serving as commander of Navy Region Southeast in Jacksonville, Fla., will relieve Rear Adm. Anthony Gaiani, who assumed command in Naples in 2010. Scorby is expected to report to Naples this fall.
The Defense Department has not yet announced Gaiani’s next assignment.
The command supports Navy activities across Europe, Africa and the Middle East and has expanded its footprint eastward in recent years, with oversight of the military’s only official and permanent base in Africa, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, as well as the 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. It also oversees installations in Naples and Sigonella in Italy; Rota, Spain, and Souda Bay, Crete.
The command also controls maritime air patrol in the Mediterranean.
Among challenges facing the command in the coming years will be the expansion of Naval Station Rota, which is expected to gain some 3,000 military personnel and dependents with the arrival of four Aegis-class destroyers as part of the European missile defense system. The first is slated to arrive in early 2014, with the rest to arrive later that year and in 2015.
Scorby, of Manlius, N.Y., entered the Navy in 1982 and was designated a flight officer two years later. He has served in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations and was the commanding officer of Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
