Chief of Naval Air Training Rear Adm. Richard Brophy, at podium, presides over the change of command at Training Air Wing One at Naval Air Station Meridian, where Capt. Juston Kuch, far right, assumes command from Capt. Robert Lanane II.

Navy personnel, family, friends and community leaders gathered in the hangar at Naval Air Station Meridian’s Training Air Wing One on Friday to bid farewell to Capt. Robert Lanane II and welcome aboard Capt. Juston Kuch who assumed the role of commodore.

After more than 25 years of service, Lanane retired from the Navy following the ceremony’s change in command.

The morning ceremony opened with the parade of colors, the singing of the national anthem by retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Terry Pankhurst and an invocation by chaplain Carl Scroggs.

Following the invocation, an airborne change of command took place in which Lanane, flying one jet as the outgoing commodore, and Kuch, flying a second jet as the incoming commodore, passed by the hangar in front of the crowd.

Chief of Naval Air Training Rear Adm. Richard Brophy presided over the change of command.

“Today’s ceremony represents the lineage of war fighters for passing the responsibility of one commander to another,” he said. “This iron clad handoff is vital because our mission is fundamentally rooted in combat as we uphold the Constitution against all enemies.”

Brophy lauded Lanane’s time as the Training Air Wing One commander saying his foresight and proactive approach has been indispensable in implementing creative ways for training and taking care of naval aviators, as well as championing revolutionary improvements to intermediate and advanced jet training.

“His efforts, among others, has resulted in Training Air Wing One continuing to produce the most competent, capable aviators in the world who are prepared to meet tomorrow’s challenges on the battlefield. For this you have my most sincere gratitude,” Brophy said.

Lanane, who earned his wings of gold at NAS Meridian in 2001, took over command of the air wing in August 2021. During his tenure, Training Squadrons Seven and Nine delivered more than 53,700 flight training sorties with zero mishap flight hours in the T-45 Goshawk. He led the air wing to qualify 53 instructor pilots, designate 227 Navy and Marine Corps strike aviators and wing 35 international military officers.

This is not the first time for Kuch, who was raised in Indiana, to be in Meridian. He was commissioned through the Officer Candidate School at NAS Pensacola in October 2000 and earned his wings of gold at NAS Meridian in January 2003.

He initially trained in the F/A-18C Hornet and deployed aboard the USS John F. Kennedy with Strike Fighter Squadron 34 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and then aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln for a deployment to the Western Pacific.

In March 2007, Kuch reported to Fallon, Nevada, and completed Navy Fighter Weapons School, more popularly known as Top Gun, and became a strike fighter tactics instructor. He deployed aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in August 2009 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and later served two more deployments in support of the operation.

He is a graduate of the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island, where he earned a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies.

His previous assignments have included the Joint Staff J-6 Directorate at the Pentagon, executive officer and commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 34 and deputy commodore for Task Force 63 in Naples, Italy.

Brophy said the Navy couldn’t be happier to have Kuch serving as commodore of Training Air Wing One.

“The work of our training wings is crucial for the defense of our country. Our nation needs a strong Navy like never before which requires a continued supply of naval aviators in order to fill the open cockpit seats left behind by those whose watch has ended,” he said.