Courtesy / Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Michael Oberdorf will become the 87th commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
February 2, 2022
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard will change commanders
By Jessica Hall
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery will get a new leader on Friday, the U.S. Navy has announced.
Capt. Michael Oberdorf will become the 87th shipyard commander, succeeding Daniel Ettlich, who will now fill a senior position in Hawaii.
Oderdorf will relieve Ettlich at a change-of-command ceremony on Feb. 4, according to the Navy's Sea Systems Command.
Ettlich has served as the shipyard commander since August 2019 and was recently selected to fill a senior position with the Pacific fleet in Hawaii, as the director of fleet maintenance.
“My time at Portsmouth has been incredibly rewarding, even as we plowed through the unique, challenging, and tiring demands of the pandemic,” Ettlich said in a statement. “My whole family has come to love Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the seacoast area, and more broadly, New England, however our nation is calling and I must answer.”
Oberdorf comes to Portsmouth from his previous assignment as operations officer at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. He has considerable naval maintenance knowledge and experience, the Navy said, and has served as the submarine repair officer, deputy operations officer, business and strategic planning officer as well as production resources officer, all in Norfolk.
A native of Penn Run, Pa., Oberdorf enlisted in the Navy in 1992 and received his commission in 1999 from Penn State University through the enlisted commissioning program.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery is the Navy's center for attack submarine overhaul, repair and modernization.
In 2019, the yard employed more than 7,300 civilians and generated a regional economic impact of over $1 billion.
Under Ettlich’s command, the yard overcame the challenges of the ongoing pandemic and reached unprecedented execution in submarine maintenance, overhaul and innovation, Naval Sea Systems Command said.
In his last year, the yard broke ground on the $1.7 billion multi-mission dry dock and worked on the construction of its new paint/blast/rubber facility. PNSY also delivered the USS California, completed the USS Newport News on time for fleet operations, and delivered the USS Annapolis one week early.
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