YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — Rear Adm. Rick Ruehe has been named as the next commander of all shore commands in Japan, Navy officials said Wednesday.
Ruehe, who has spent the past two years as the Amphibious Group 1 commander in Sasebo, Japan, will replace Rear Adm. Robert Chaplain.
Chaplain is expected to retire from the Navy.
According to a U.S. Naval Forces Japan spokesman, a change of command ceremony is scheduled for early September aboard the USS Blue Ridge.
Before then, Ruehe will relinquish his amphibious command during a ceremony July 25 in Sasebo, group spokesman Lt. j.g. Jereal Dorsey said.
The group’s new commander will be Rear Adm. Gary R. Jones, currently commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea.
Ruehe, a naval aviator since 1976, came to Japan for the first time in 1995 when he served as executive officer aboard the then-Sasebo-based USS Belleau Wood.
In 1996, he was designated the ship’s captain. He moved from the region in 1998, when he joined the staff of the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Va.
