Captain Joseph Rochefort IW Distinguished Leader Excellence Award Announced

Commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command and U.S. TENTH Fleet is pleased to announce the selection of Lieutenant Commander Gerie W. Palanca, assigned to the U.S. SEVENTH Fleet staff, as the 2021 Captain Joseph Rochefort Information Warfare Officer Distinguished Leadership Award winner. According to the nomination, Lieutenant Commander Palanca serves as the Cryptologic Resource Coordinator for the U.S. SEVENTH Fleet and has continually distinguished himself by demonstrating unmatched cryptologic skills, dedicated performance, and sterling leadership throughout his career. Starting as a Direct Support Officer at Navy Information Operations Command (NIOC) Hawaii, he deployed aboard five combatants before being assigned as the Electronic Warfare/Ships Signal Exploitation Division Officer aboard USS LASSEN (DDG 82). There he led his 15 Sailors during numerous deployments, a 1 million dollar space upgrade, and a homeport shift to Yokosuka, Japan. Following the Navy Postgraduate School, Lieutenant Commander Planaca was assigned to NIOC Colorado where he worked diligently to increase overhead support to deployed commanders and was selected to backfill the Operations Officer position. Most recently, he was hand-selected to fill his current position as the U.S. SEVENTH Fleet CRC where he has used his knowledge of Cryptology, Space, and Information Warfare (IW) to lead 7 operational subordinate Task Force IW teams and a staff of 18 IW officer and enlisted Sailors.