After just over a year serving as commanding officer of Naval Base Coronado, Capt. Newt “Bomb” McKissick on Jan. 26 turned over command to Capt. Ladislao Montero.
“You’ve been very attentive to our community and pursued issues as we bring them up,” said City Councilmember Mike Donovan, a retired U.S. Navy captain himself. “Fair winds and following seas.”
McKissick was honored at the Feb. 6 meeting of the Coronado City Council.
“This is what the best of America is,” McKissick said. “I want to thank you, the citizens of Coronado, because you have made this a place where we want to raise our family, where we want to have our home base.”
McKissick will now act as the lead military liaison for the energy portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit in San Diego.
City Councilmember Carrie Downey credited McKissick for helping Coronado to incorporate planned military housing into its housing element plan, alleviating some of the burden of the city’s allocated 912 units.
“Following a long tradition of outstanding commanding officers here, you’ve set the bar higher than your predecessors,” she said. “When we needed help trying to figure out how to get the state to understand how housing works in our community, (…) you helped us. I can’t thank you enough. That’s the true definition of partnership.”
Montero, the base’s new commanding officer, enlisted in the Navy in 1988 and served for five years before using his GI Bill benefits to pursue an undergraduate degree. He later attended the Naval War College for his graduate degree.
“I could not be more proud to be a part of this community,” McKissick said. “It has been an honor of a lifetime to represent the soldiers, sailors and civilians of Naval Base Coronado in this community.”
