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By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Joshua Karsten
U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs
PHILIPPINE SEA – Lt. Cmdr. Marcus Seeger from Houston, Texas, was awarded the 2014 Junior Officer Award for Excellence in Tactics March 9 for his performance as combat systems officer onboard USS John S. McCain (DDG 56).
Seeger received the award for his tactical warfighting efforts throughout 2014 while serving as the combat systems officer on McCain forward deployed to Yokosuka, Japan, in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.
Every year, Commander, Naval Surface Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet selects one surface warfare officer from each destroyer squadron to receive the award. Seeger was the top pick for Destroyer Squadron (DERSON) 15 which includes hundreds of officers amongst its eleven destroyers.
“It feels great to receive this award, but I have to say it wasn’t just me out there doing this. I had a lot of really great and talented people back on McCain working hard as a team and they really deserve all the recognition,” said Seeger. “Without all of their expertise and hard work, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Seeger was a key leader for multiple exercises in 2014 for the McCain crew to include MULTISAIL ’14, a complex live-fire bilateral exercise that tests all major warfare areas and two missile shoots. In January 2014, he also put pen to paper by co-authoring a tactical memo, or tactical playbook, to guide and train all ships operating in the Korean theater on the tactics associated with Maritime Counter Special Operations Forces (MCSOF).
“We participated in a lot of exercises and the whole McCain team was a big player in them; especially writing tactical memos, standing the watch, and mastering the whole warfare area…so then we wrote the book,” said Seeger. “These exercises typically only get done periodically, but we were really the pros on McCain! With my colleagues, we really became the subject matter experts and that’s why McCain was tasked by DESRON 15 to write the playbook.”
During his time with McCain, his team also completed a rigorous training cycle for which he was one of the tactical action officers and a key “mastermind” for McCain’s entire combat systems certification.
“I cannot overemphasize the amazing team on McCain especially the leadership that gave me the latitude to go and figure out new ways to do things and better ways to train and organize ourselves to do the best we can do for the fleet” said Seeger.
Seeger is originally from Taylor Lake Village, a suburb on the southeast side of Houston. He attended Auburn University and was commissioned through NROTC in 2003 as a naval surface warfare officer. His previous commands include the USS Reuben James (FFG-57), flag aide for the president of the U.S. Naval War College followed by a one-year student tour, a United Nations military observer to Liberia, Navy department head school, and his current position on the U.S. 7th Fleet staff as the flag secretary, or executive officer, to the Chief of Staff for the U.S. 7th Fleet commander, Vice Adm. Robert L. Thomas Jr.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.16.2015 06:27 |
| Story ID: | 157070 |
| Location: | PHILIPPINE SEA, AT SEA |
| Hometown: | HOUSTON, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 84 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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