Capt. Gregory deWindt speaks after his appointment as commanding officer of Naval Air Station Jacksonville on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. | Master at Arms Scottie Coombs, U.S. Navy
Published on February 29, 2024 at 3:24 pm
A New York native and naval aviator is the new commander of Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
Executive Officer Capt. Greg deWindt took over command of the sprawling base on Roosevelt Boulevard after a ceremony Thursday. He replaces Capt. Marc Cantu.
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The 3,400-acre NAS Jacksonville includes more than 110 tenant commands including 17 squadrons and an estimated 21,000 active duty and retired military staff, plus civilians.
The base is the largest installation in the Navy Region Southeast and third-largest in the Navy. It is home to the NAS Jax Air Show every two years, bringing the Blue Angels aerobatic corps and others.
Cantu, a native of Missouri City, Texas, began his Navy career in 2000 with Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 46 in Mayport, as well as serving on a number of Navy ships in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
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After graduating from the U.S. Naval War College, he served as a U.S. Strategic Command deputy division chief for nuclear strike planning. Following other duties, Cantu became NAS Jacksonville’s executive officer in early 2021, then its 51st commanding officer on Aug. 19, 2022.
Under his command, NAS Jax recently earned the 2024 Installation Excellence Award as the best large naval installation worldwide.
deWindt enlisted in the Navy in 1991 and was commissioned as an ensign in 1996. In 2011, he earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College. In 2017, he completed an executive master’s degree in business administration from Naval Post Graduate School.
After becoming a naval aviator in 1998, he received initial training in the SH-60B “Seahawk” and joined Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 47 in San Diego. Subsequent flying tours included executive officer of HSM-37 at Marine Corps Air Station, in Hawaii, and commanding officer of HSM-49 at NAS North Island.
He had multiple ship deployments as pilot, officer-in-charge, hangar deck division officer and air operations officer, as well as an assignment at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, supporting administrative rand combatant status review. He was deployed as officer-in-charge for COIC-Afghanistan and also served as inclusion and diversity officer for the head of Navy Personnel Command at Bureau of Naval Personnel in Tennessee.
He assumed duties as NAS Jacksonville executive officer in August 2022. Capt. Ryan Dexter will now handle that duty.
Lead image: Capt. Gregory deWindt speaks after his appointment as commanding officer of Naval Air Station Jacksonville on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. | U.S. Navy photo, Master at Arms Scottie Coombs
