Capt. John Scanlan
When Capt. John Scanlan Jr. joined the Navy 26 years ago, his ultimate goal was to hold a major command position.
Mission accomplished.
On Friday, the 53-year-old Lawrence native will step down after a two-year tour as commander of Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in Jacksonville, Fla. Instead of taking on a new assignment, Scanlan will retire from the Navy and enter the civilian work world.
"I probably have one more tour, but I couldn't think of a better time than to leave as a prior commanding officer," Scanlan said in a phone interview.
Next week, Scanlan takes over as chief operations officer in the Oklahoma City public schools. He will be in charge of managing noneducational functions associated with operating the school district's 80 schools, including transportation, food service and security and safety. He will oversee the district's chief financial officer.
"It's very comparable to the type of work I've been doing at FRCS," Scanlan said.
In Jacksonville, Scanlan was in charge of 4,200 civilian and military personnel responsible for maintenance, repair and overhaul of Navy aircraft, engines and components. He led organizational changes and other efforts that resulted in delivering aircraft ahead of schedule and at reduced costs.
A key to that accomplishment was changing the corporate culture to do away with bureaucracies and layers of unnecessary procedures, Scanlan said.
"The secret is essentially recognizing that, for the most part, the people who best know the business are normally about 50 feet from the job," he said. "We let them tell us how to improve and then we remove the barriers."
A 1972 Lawrence High School graduate, Scanlan played football at LHS and then at Kansas University as a defensive lineman. He learned how to fly and was a member of the Civil Air Patrol. He entered the Navy in 1981 and became a bombardier/navigator on the A-6E Intruder. He participated in combat missions over Libya and Iraq while flying off aircraft carriers. He attended the Navy Test Pilot School and earned the distinction of being the first flight test engineer to evaluate a foreign aircraft.
While the public's attention the past few years has been on the ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there will always be a need for a strong Navy, Scanlan said. The Navy can project U.S. power anywhere in the world, he said.
"We are there when the president needs force," he said. "We are able to deploy quickly and are probably already on station in many theaters."
A retirement ceremony will be held at the base Friday. Scanlan's Lawrence parents, John Scanlan Sr. and Helen Scanlan, and his wife Amy's parents, Ann and Phil Chappell, also of Lawrence, will attend. Other relatives also plan to be there. The couple have a daughter and three grandchildren.
"I can't believe 26 years have gone by," Scanlan said. "I think the aviation portion - flying off aircraft carriers - was the most fun, but probably the last few years I've served with the fleet readiness center were the most rewarding."
As retirement nears, Scanlan said he thinks about former shipmates, commanding officers and others who were instrumental in shaping his career.
"I think the good foundation I received as a boy in the Midwest, as far as values, were essential to my success," he said.
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