USS Tortuga (LSD 46) held a change of ceremony Aug. 15 on board amphibious dock landing ship at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek.
Cmdr. Thomas Goudreau relieved Cmdr. Brett Hershman as the commanding officer.
During his tour, Hershman led USS Ashland (LSD 48) through a successful Board of Inspection Survey (INSURV)- a critical event in a ship’s deployment cycle to verify readiness. He also led the Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF) transit of USS Ashland to the 7th Fleet operating area, and a hull swap with USS Tortuga in Sasebo, Japan.
Hershman will report to Chief of Naval Operations, Amphibious Warfare Branch N953 in Washington, D.C.
Goudreau reported to USS Ashland in April 2013 as the executive officer and continued his tour on board USS Tortuga (LSD 46) following the hull swap.
At sea, Goudreau previously served as auxiliaries officer on USS Cleveland (LPD 7), assistant operations officer on USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), operations officer on USS Carter Hall (LSD 50), and Operations officer for Commander Amphibious Squadron 4/Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group.
Ashore, Goudreau served as Joint Task Force Logistics Officer for Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet, rating assignment officer / metrics officer for PERS 40 at Naval Personnel Command, and as a student at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California and the Italian War College in Rome, Italy.
As an LSD, USS Tortuga is designed to transport and launch amphibious craft and vehicles in support of amphibious assault operations.