Capt. Michael Haymon
Provided to the LVN
Capt. Michael Haymon, a career naval officer who enlisted in 1998 and was commissioned an ensign through the officer candidate school, will succeed Capt. Shane Tanner on Friday as commanding officer of Naval Air Station Fallon.
The time-honored change-of-command ceremony begins at 10 a.m. at Hangar 7.
Tanner will become the chief of staff of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic headquartered at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. Naval Station Norfolk is the headquarters and home port of the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command.
Haymon, a 1998 graduate from Washington State University, was commissioned as an ensign in 2001 and designated a naval flight officer two years later. His career has included operational and leadership positions.
During his 27-year military career, Haymon’s sea and operation duty assignments have included squadron department head, Squadron One; commanding officer of Patrol Squadron (VP-26); and commander of Task Group 67. Haymon deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Haymon’s shore assignments have included weapons and tactics instructor, policy military planner, deputy executive assistant to the director of Joint Staff Strategy, Plans and Policy Directorate, platforms branch chief; Joint Staff Operations directorate; and Mission Assurance Team chief/Navy science adviser, Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
Tanner completes a three-year assignment that began in March 2022. Tanner, a 27-year military veteran, was NAS Fallon’s 34th commander. Born in Auburn, New York, Tanner received his commission from Texas A&M University in 1998 as a member of the Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets. He earned his flying wings on Oct. 20, 2000.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval War College as a member of the Halsey Group, he earned a masters of arts in national security and strategic studies in 2009. He graduated from the Joint Forces Staff College in 2014 earning Full Joint Qualification. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Navy Strike Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) and Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School (CAEWWS).
Tanner has accumulated more than 3,000 flight hours, logged more than 600 carrier arrested landings and completed 174 combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his first year of command at Fallon, both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate approved the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act in late 2022 for the modernization and expansion of the Fallon Range Training Complex.
During his three-year command at NAS Fallon, Tanner has been actively involved with the Fallon Rotary Club and supported the local Purple Star schools as the Churchill County School District became the first in Nevada where all schools received a Purple Star designation in 2022.
The Purple Star School Program, which is administered by a state’s department of education, stresses the importance of assisting military children with school transition and develops programs that recognize the value of military service and civic responsibility.
Tanner has supported local programs and spoke at Fallon’s 9/11 ceremony in 2023 and at a Memorial Day remembrance in May 2022 at the Fallon-Paiute Shoshone Tribe’s cemetery.