Naval aviators cross paths once again in USS Mount Whitney command turnover

GAETA, Italy — Decades after leaving the U.S. Naval Academy, Capt. Colin Price is still helping fellow sailors learn the ropes, including his newly installed successor.

Price turned over command Friday of the U.S. 6th Fleet flagship, USS Mount Whitney, to Capt. Harry Evans during a shipboard ceremony in this Mediterranean Sea port city where the command-and-control ship is homeported.

It was a serendipitous moment for two sailors whose ties span decades. Price was a 2nd Class plebe summer detailer for Evans as he entered the academy in 1999.

Over the intervening years, the two fighter jet pilots have crossed paths several times, serving together in Japan and at Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada, among other career experiences.

Evans said that familiarity helped ease his transition into leadership of the ship, which hosts a hybrid crew of Navy sailors and Military Sealift Command civilian mariners.

Sailors aboard USS Mount Whitney watch a shipboard change of command ceremony, July 31, 2026. Capt. Harry Evans relieved Capt. Colin Price as commanding officer of the ship, the flagship of U.S. 6th Fleet, during the ceremony in Gaeta, Italy. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

The U.S. flag waves off the stern of USS Mount Whitney while the ship was in its homeport of Gaeta, Italy, July 31, 2026. Mount Whitney, the flagship of U.S. 6th Fleet, held a change of command ceremony that day as Capt. Harry Evans relieved Capt. Colin Price. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

For weeks, the pair worked side by side to familiarize Evans with the ship and its crew. That included taking the single-propeller, deep-draft vessel into and out of ports and hosting a shipboard event.

“I really wanted him to have some underway time with me,” Price said in an interview.

Vice Adm. Jeffrey Anderson, commander of U.S. 6th Fleet and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, presided over the event, which was attended by Navy and Italian officials and dignitaries.

Evans now commands a ship that has been in service for 55 years and that the Navy has repeatedly slated for the yard. It was most recently scheduled for dismantling in 2031, according to the service’s 30-year shipbuilding plan released in May.

It wasn’t clear Friday when Mount Whitney’s decommissioning may happen, but Anderson said the ship remains an asset to the fleet.

“It’s the only place where I can simultaneously command and control both of my staffs and my NATO forces as well as my U.S. forces,” he said. “There is nowhere else on the planet I can do that.”

That one-of-a-kind status lies in Mount Whitney’s dual secure command centers for U.S. and NATO personnel, allowing sailors to operate jointly without compromising sensitive information.

Evans was designated a naval flight officer in 2005 and has logged more than 4,000 flight hours and 1,200 carrier arrestments, according to his Navy biography.

His numerous deployments include operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom in the Middle East. He most recently served as executive officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

Capt. Colin Price, right, watches as Vice Adm. Jeffrey Anderson, center, congratulates Capt. Harry Evans, commander of USS Mount Whitney, during a change of command ceremony aboard the ship, July 31, 2026. Evans relieved Price as commanding officer of the ship. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

Capt. Harry Evans, center, took command of U.S. 6th Fleet flagship USS Mount Whitney on Friday, July 31, 2026, in Gaeta, Italy, the ship's homeport. Evans relieved Capt. Colin Price as commanding officer during a shipboard change of command ceremony. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

During Friday’s ceremony, Evans told crew members that while the commander of the ship may change, its mission remains the same.

“Our mission statement captures exactly who we are,” he said. “We are ambassadors, enablers and champions. … We are representing something much bigger than ourselves.”

Price had led Mount Whitney since January 2025, seeing the ship and its crew through several military exercises, port visits and diplomatic events.

Those included visits to the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in April 2025, the first Navy visits there in 56 years, and port calls or visits that same year to the African countries of Cape Verde, Mauritania and Tunisia.

“I’ve asked a lot of all of you, and you’ve met the challenge every time,” he told sailors Friday.

All told, Price estimates that he’s taken Mount Whitney into 17 ports in 15 countries, sailing some 35,000 nautical miles over the past 18 months.

The ship also recently operated with two MH-60 Seahawk helicopters aboard, demonstrating its flexibility to support maritime interdiction operations, if needed, he said.

Price’s next assignment will be with U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany.