CHINA LAKE, Calif. – After a stellar 24-year naval career, Capt. Timothy J. “Eel” Morey celebrated his pending retirement with a change of command and retirement ceremony Sept. 1 at the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 30 Hangar 372 in Point Mugu, Calif.

Naval Test Wing Pacific (NTWP) commodore Morey completed his last military flight Aug. 29, 2011, departing from China Lake, Calif., where he served from March 2004 – March 2007 as chief test pilot and then commander of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 31.

More than 200 guests attended the ceremony to witness the traditional Navy change of command ceremony when Morey was relieved by Capt Paul A. Sohl as NTWP commander.

NASA astronaut Capt. Scott Kelly was the guest speaker. A veteran of three space flights, Kelly has logged more than 180 days in space. Kelly, like his shipmate Morey, received his commission from the State University of New York Maritime College and was designated a naval aviator at Naval Air Station (NAS) Beeville, Texas.

Morey is well-known to the NAWCWD community through his service as the Tomahawk test director within PEO(U&W) at Patuxent River, Md., October 2001 – December 2003. He became the military director of NAVAIR’s Weapons and Energetics Department March 2007 – June 2008, then assumed command of Naval Test Wing Pacific from June 2008 to September 2011.

Hailing from North Salem, N.Y., Morey was commissioned May 1987 through the NROTC Program at the State University of New York Maritime College where earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a USCG Third Mate license in the Merchant Marine. He was designated a Naval Aviator July 1989, Naval Air Station Beeville, Texas. Throughout his career, he accumulated more than 3,000 hours of flight time in 35 different aircraft.

Morey’s personal awards include Meritorious Service Medals (3), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals (2), and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals (2). He is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots currently serving on the Board of Directors as a technical advisor, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics where he serves on the Flight Test Technical Committee.