By CDR Will Stout

NAVAIR PATUXENT RIVER, MD - Chief Petty Officer Kevin Chambers will retire from the U.S. Navy after 20 years of distinguished military service in a ceremony being held at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum on July 1 at 10 a.m.

Chambers has spent the last four years of his naval career serving as the Navy Liaison Officer for Airborne Strategic Command, Control and Communication (C3) Program Office, PMA271.

Born in Philadelphia and raised in upstate New York, Chambers enlisted in the U.S. Navy in October 1985 completed basic training and volunteered for flight duty.

As a 1987 graduate from Naval Aircrewman Candidate School in Pensacola, Fla., Chambers began his naval career with a sea duty tour at Patrol Squadron Eleven in Brunswick, Maine. While assigned to the avionics shop Chambers performed duties as an in-flight technician on the P-3C Orion aircraft and deployed to Spain, Azores, Sicily, Iceland, Panama and Puerto Rico.

Upon returning from sea duty abroad, Chambers was assigned to Patrol Squadron Special Projects Unit One in Brunswick, Maine, for another four years where he performed duties as in-flight technician on the P-3C Orion aircraft.

Following a four-year tour, which began June 1995 with the Bureau of Naval Personnel Sea Duty Component in Dallas, Texas, Chambers then accepted orders to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Okla. where he flew in the Navy’s E-6B Mercury aircraft with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Four. As a Naval Aircrewman, Chambers logged over 5,000 hours of flight time.

Reporting to his current command in November 2001, Chambers has been awarded two Air Medals with Combat “V”, two Navy Commendation Medals, Joint Service Achievement Medal, and four Navy Achievement Medals.

Chambers holds a bachelors degree in Business Administration and Computer Information Systems from Southern New Hampshire University. Chambers and his wife, the former Julie Cornell of Fulton, N.Y., have two children, Alex and Erin. Following retirement from active duty, the entire Chambers family plans to return to upstate New York.

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