A ceremony was held on Misawa Air Base, Japan, Oct. 10 to mark the disestablishment of U.S. Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Misawa, Japan, after the command's 52 years of distinguished service to the Navy, the nation, and its Japanese allies.

Rear Adm. Sean R. Filipowski, Director of Warfare Integration for Information Dominance (OPNAV N2/N6F), presided over the ceremony, and retired Rear Adm. Alex Miller served as the guest speaker.

"NIOC Misawa is, and will always be, remembered as a critical strand in our national defense and information dominance fiber. I continue to be impressed by the efforts of the officers, enlisted personnel, and civilians before me, who have well answered all of the Chief of Naval Operations tenets of warfighting first, operating forward, and being ready - you embody his charge," said Filipowski.

Filipowski previously served as the U.S. Naval Security Group Activity (NSGA) Misawa, Japan executive officer, from 1999 to 2000, and Miller previously served as the NSGA Misawa commanding officer from September 1993 to August 1996.

NSGA Misawa was renamed NIOC Misawa on Oct. 1, 2005 due to the disestablishment of Commander, Naval Security Group Command and the re-subordination of all NIOCs at the time under Naval Network Warfare Command on Oct. 1, 2005.

"Time has passed, the mission has changed, and technology has now provided a new and cheaper means to provide the nation the information it needs. This chapter in Cryptologic support to our nation is coming to an end," Miller said. "But, it will live on in the minds of those who served here, in the awards they received and the lives their actions saved."

For more than five decades, Misawa Sailors have deployed throughout the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Middle East, on surface combatants, submarines and airborne platforms. They have fought alongside their joint service brethren in Iraq and Afghanistan and have logged thousands of days deployed and accumulated more than 80,000 flights hours.

Sailors have stood watch in Misawa and deployed with an ever vigilant eye toward threats in the Pacific so the citizens and Sailors of the United States and its allies could rest easy all these decades. While reading 'The Watch' at the disestablishment ceremony, Col. Joseph Winters, Commander, Misawa Security Operations Center (MSOC), told the Sailors, civilians, and families of NIOC Misawa, "...we have the watch, NIOC Misawa, you are relieved."