Official U.S. Navy website - Commander Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Commander Tate Westbrook Commanding Officer (May 2010 - May 2012)

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Native of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Commander Westbrook is a 1989 graduate of Tulane University. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Rhetoric and earned his commission through the NROTC program. Commander Westbrook’s initial sea tours were in USS HAWES (FFG 53) as Communications Officer, Ordnance Officer and Weapons Control Officer and included combat action in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

Following his initial ship tour, Commander Westbrook resigned from active duty in 1993 to pursue a career as an entrepreneur in Charleston, South Carolina. After four years as a successful small business owner, during which he also achieved a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Master’s license, Commander Westbrook returned to active duty in 1997 and reported to Department Head School in Newport, Rhode Island. After graduating from Department Head School, he served as Combat Systems Officer in USS O’BRIEN (DD 975) forward-deployed in Yokosuka, Japan, then served as the commissioning Combat Systems Officer in USS McCAMPBELL (DDG 85).

Commander Westbrook then served at the Missile Defense Agency as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Program Support Officer in 2003, and as the Missile Defense Agency’s Congressional liaison to the House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Subcommittee from 2004 through 2005. He then served as Executive Officer in USS LABOON (DDG 58), one of the three ships of the first Atlantic Fleet Destroyer Sea Swap experiment.

Commander Westbrook attended the Southern New Hampshire University where he earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration. In 2007, he was one of the 30 selected as National Finalists in the White House Fellows program, from a field of nearly one thousand outstanding applicants. He represented the Navy as a 2008-2009 Fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Seminar XXI program

His personal awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal (four awards), the Navy Achievement medal and multiple campaign, unit and service awards.

Selected as Commanding Officer of PCU SPRUANCE (DDG 111), Commander Westbrook most recently served in the Pentagon on the Naval Operations Staff (OPNAV)-Programming Division (N80), from fall 2007 through June 2009.