Naval Air Force Reserve Welcomes New Commander
The ceremony marked the culmination of a successful tenure for Saccomando, who led the Navy Reserve’s aviation enterprise through pivotal modernization and readiness initiatives. Under his command, he provided strategic vision for 8,623 personnel and 124 aircraft, flawlessly managed a $740 million Operations and Maintenance budget and led the historic stand-up of CNAFR's KC-130T aerial refueling capability, which delivered massive operational impact across the fleet.
Rear Adm. (Ret.) Scott Fuller, Deputy Chief of the Navy Reserve, acted as the guest speaker during the ceremony. During his remarks, he highlighted all the accomplishments that CNAFR experienced under Saccomando’s leadership.
During his address, Saccomando reflected on the dedication, agility and warfighting capabilities demonstrated by Reserve Sailors across operational and tactical support wings worldwide.
“I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business here, there are a lot of things I wanted to get done but I know there are a lot of folks on the staff who will be able to advance this mission. I am confident that I am leaving a team that is capable of accomplishing anything they set their minds to, and I couldn’t be turning over CNAFR to anyone better than Rear Adm. Lockard,” said Saccomando.
A native of Buffalo, New York, and a 1994 graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Saccomando flew more than 50 combat missions in the F-14D Tomcat with the VF-213 "Fighting Blacklions" and served as the right-wing pilot for the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron. He later transitioned to the F/A-18F Super Hornet with the VFA-41 "Black Aces" before continuing his leadership career across Navy Reserve aviation squadrons and senior staff assignments, including command of VR-56 and flag tours supporting U.S. Pacific Fleet and Naval Air Force Atlantic.
Upon assuming command, Lockard emphasized the continuing the integration of the Navy Reserve component alongside active-duty carrier air wings and expeditionary units.
“Rear Adm. Saccomando has done a great job so I anticipate that we will stay the course to continue to support seamless, sustainable support to the naval aviation enterprise. That’s the mission and that’s not going to change. This team makes it look easy and I am grateful I get to see it through,” said Lockard.
Lockard, a native of Houston, Texas, was commissioned in 1998 through the ROTC program at Texas A&M University. As an Electronic Countermeasures Officer (ECMO), he flew combat missions in the EA-6B Prowler with VAQ-136 aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) and later commanded the "Star Warriors" of VAQ-209, leading the squadron's transition to the EA-18G Growler and executing the first Reserve component expeditionary Growler deployment to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command . His senior leadership roles include Deputy Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic and Reserve Deputy Director, Maritime Headquarters, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Commander, Naval Air Force Reserve directs the manning, training, and equipping of 3 Wings, 21 squadrons, three shore commands and 31 squadron augment units to provide the highest levels of warfighting readiness to combatant commanders worldwide.
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