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Navy Reserve commander asks to retire

The Navy Reserve will soon get a new boss.

Vice Adm. John G. Cotton, who has served as chief of Navy Reserve since October 2003, has turned in his retirement package and has taken leave of his office at the Pentagon, a Navy Reserve spokesman said Monday.

The Navy Reserve’s deputy chief, Rear Adm. Dirk Debbink, is now serving as acting chief of Navy Reserve and “there is no specific timeline for a decision on the [new] nominee,” said Navy Reserve spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Victor Chen, who added that Cotton had turned in his paperwork after completing his full four-year term.

“Adm. Cotton plans to transition from the role as Chief of Navy Reserve as he fully and faithfully executed the full term of his orders,” according to a statement released by Chen.

Cotton, a 1973 Naval Academy graduate, transitioned into the Navy Reserve in 1980, after serving as an A-7 Corsair pilot with Attack Squadron 93, the “Ravens.”

He has since commanded the Fighter Attack Squadron 204, “the River Rattlers;” the Naval Air Station Keflavik detachment at Naval Air Facility Washington; as deputy commander of Joint Task Force Southwest Asia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Southern Watch; and as an instructor at the Command Leadership School at Naval Education and Training Command in Newport, R.I.

Cotton has previously said that upon his retirement, he would return to work at American Airlines.