Navy Promotes Lakehurst Commander, A New Jersey Native

A longtime U.S. Navy service member and New Jersey native who serves as the deputy director of the Test Division at NAVAIR Lakehurst received a promotion to the rank of captain earlier this week.

Formerly a commander, John Newcomer, who grew up in Brigantine, was promoted during a Monday ceremony in the historic Hangar One at the the Lakehurst site of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, said Tom Worsdale, public affairs officer for NAVAIR

"He is a New Jersey native and has almost 34 years of service — very rare," Worsdale said.

The ceremony was held on the deck of a quarter-scale model aircraft carrier deck inside the hangar which is used for training Navy aviation boatswain mates, according to Worsdale. Newcomer was accompanied by his wife, Lynn.

Capt. R.D. Jones presided over the ceremony, which was in the same spot where Newcomer began his Navy career, Worsdale said.

Newcomer enlisted in the Navy in December of 1977 in Great Lakes, Ill., and moved to Lakehurst to begin naval technical training a few months later at the Aviation Boatswain Mate Fuels School.

Worsdale said that Newcomer's duration of service is unique.

"Most officers have a mandatory retirement of 30 years, but he served in the enlisted ranks and was a chief petty officer before getting commissioned in 1989," he said. 

Newcomer was commissioned as an ensign that year, after which time he completed tours aboard the USS Independence, the Vinson, the USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS Kitty Hawk, and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, where he served as weapons department head.

Newcomer also held positions on the NAVSEA staff in Washington, D.C., was the carrier flight and hangar deck systems manager at the Washington Navy Yard, and was the commanding officer of the Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit in Jacksonville, Fl., Worsdale said.