Gearing (DD 710) - Naval Cruise Book

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Commander Russell Alfred Marcellus, USN Commander Russell A Marcellus USN aveteran of sixteen years of active Naval service assumed command of USS GEARING QDD 7107 on 25 April 1966 After two and a half years as a Naval aviator Commander Marcellus began his surface Navy career aboard the battleship NEW JERSEY Other assignments included USS PILLSBURY receiving a Bachelor of Science degree at Naval Postgraduate School in 1961 Commander Marcellus was Executive Officer of USS WATTS QDD 5615 and later USS THE SULLIVANS fDD 537i Prior to reporting to GEARING he served as Executive Officer of USS YOSEMITE fAD 199 flagship for commander Cruiser Destroyer Force U S Atlantic Fleet Commander Marcellus holds the China Service Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal Korean Presidential Unit Citation, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the Navy Expeditionary Medal. COMMANDING OFFICER lDFll-1331, General Line School, and Fleet Training Group, Guantanamo Bay Cuba. After l.

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1 Commander Charles E. Johnson, USN COMMANDER DESTRCYER DIVISION 242 Commander Charles E.JOHNSON' was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and U. Naval War College. Entering the U. S. Navy in 1943 he was designated a Naval Aviator and commissioned an Ensign in 1946.. He has served in various carrier air groups, patrol squadronsg aboard aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyersg and on combined, fleet and joint staffs. During the Korean conflict he served as a night pilot aboard carriers operating off the coast Of Korea, Prior to assuming command of Destroyer Division 242,Co'mmander JOHNSON was Operations Officer, U. S. Naval Forces, Vietnamg and Chief Staff Officer and Operations Officer, Coastal Surveillance Force, Vietnam QCTF 1155, A list of his decorations include: Legion of Merit with Combat V , DFC with gold star, Air Medal with gold and silver stars, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V , Purple Heart with gold star, US Navy Unit Citation with bronze stars, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, Various Campaign and Theater awards. Commander JOHNSON assumed command of Destroyer' Division 242 on 28 September 1966 'at NeWP01'tv Rhode Island, GEARING served as Commodore Johnson's flagship for much of the Mediterranean cruise. While temporarily assigned to Destroyer Squadron Twenty Four, GEARING accompanied USS HAWKINS QDD-8733, USS VESOLE QDD-8783, USS INCRAHAM QDD-6943 USS WALLER QDD-4661, and USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS QDD-8233 on the deployment to the SIXTH ,F LEET. '

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Lieutenant Commander Christopher S. Lardis EXECUTIVE OFFICER Lieutenant Commander Christopher S. LARDlS,U. S. Navy, comes from the Middle West. His home, Warren, Ohio,is in the heart of the Western Reserve wherein he attended elementary and secondary schools and prepared for Annapolis at Kent State Universityg He received a Congressional appointment to the Naval Academy and graduated with the Class of 1953. UpOI1 graduation LCDR LARDIS received orders to the SIXTH Fleet flagship, USS NEWPORT NEWS QCA-1485 wherein he served as assistant navigator. His next assignment was in destroyer types in which he served as Chief Engineer aboard the USS DELONG QDE-6847. Early in 1958 LCDR LARDIS reportedto Chicago and the Office of Naval Research Where he served as Assistant to the Commanding Officer for Research Reserve and as a liaison officer with various industrial and university research centers. In January of 1960 LCDR LARDIS returned to sea as a staff officer with Commander Destroyer Squadron THREE, with homeport Yokosuka, Japan, Destroyer Squadron THREE was the first group assigned 'to the Orient on a non-rotationalloasis and sawudutyinthf-3 Philippines, Formosa, Okinawa, and Burma. LC DR LARDIS departed Japan for Hawaii Where he reported to the staff of Commander- in-Chief Pacific Fleet, Pearl Harbor as Anti-Air Warfare Officer. Then in late summer of 1964 he reported to the Naval War Collegeas a student of the Command and Staff course and the George Washington University graduate program. Upon graduation from the Naval War College in June 1965, LCDR LARDIS reported for duty aboard the USS GEARING QDD-71056, 1