Darrell Keller

Bessemer City High School

Class of 1992

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Darrell Keller - Class of 1992 - Bessemer City High School

First Name	Darrell
Last Name	Keller
Graduation Year	Class of 1992
Gender	Male
City	N/A
State/Province	NC
Country	United States
Occupation	Lieutenant Commander
Married	Yes
Favorite School Memory	Graduation!
About Me	In the Summer of 1993, he enlisted in the Navy Reserves and completed recruit training (Company 93-127) at Great Lakes, Illinois. He returned to UNC-Asheville and, in 1996, completed his BA in History. While enlisted, he served as an Intelligence Specialist and worked for the counter-drug, counter-terrorism, and counter-intelligence department of the Atlantic Intelligence Command, Norfolk, Virginia, ultimately earning the rank of Second Class Petty Officer (IS2). Following graduation from UNC-A, he reported to NAS Pensacola, Florida for Officer Candidate School (Class 18-97) and Naval Flight Officer aviation training. He was commissioned as an Ensign (ENS) on 03 July 1997. After flight training, he reported to the VP- 4 Skinny Dragons (Combat Aircrew 3) at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base, Hawaii where he served from August 1999 – October 2002. In his initial fleet tour, He completed 2 deployments, the first to Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan and Misawa Air Base in Misawa, Japan. His second deployment was to Diego Garcia, Masirah, Oman, and Manama, Bahrain where he served in OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM. With 19 combat sorties overland Afghanistan (primarily over Khowst and Gardez and Operation ANACONDA), and numerous reconnaissance sorties elsewhere, he was selected to serve as the VP Liaison Officer aboard the USS JOHN C. STENNIS and the USS JOHN F. KENNEDY. During his tour with VP-4, he was designated Patrol Plane Tactical Coordinator (TACCO) and Mission Commander (MC). He reported to the Naval Research Laboratory Flight Support Detachment at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland in October 2002. He took part in multiple research missions including BAMEX (tornado chasing) out of St Louis, Missouri, mapping the ocean currents in the Gulf of Mexico out of New Orleans, Louisiana, and a month long research detachment to Antarctica, based out of Ushuaia, Argentina to calibrate NASA's ICESAT system. In 2005, he completed a second BA in Philosophy at St Mary's College of Maryland. He served onboard USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) as the Tactical Action Officer from August 2005 to October 2007, where he deployed on CVN-76’s Maiden Deployment to 5th Fleet and operated in support of OPERATIONS IRAQI and ENDURING FREEDOM. He completed a MA in Liberal Studies at Excelsior College in 2006. He proceeded to the Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command (NMAWC) in San Diego, CA in October 2007. He was selected as Aviation Operational – Training Department Head in 2008 and reported to the Tactical Airborne Control Squadron (TACRON) 11 in San Diego in April 2009, where he served as the Operations Department Head and Detachment OIC. In February 2011, he was selected as the United States Naval Liaison to Kenya, where he served until January 2012. In March 2012, he returned to the Intelligence community when he joined the Naval Information Operations Command (NIOC) Norfolk in Virginia Beach, VA. In March 2015, he transferred to his final command onboard USS Gerald R. Ford CVN 78. He served as the Assistant Combat Direction Center Officer and Lead TAO, where he was the very first TAO (TAO #1) for the new FORD class aircraft carriers. Upon retirement in February 2017, LCDR Keller started teaching AP and Honors US History at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy in Rutherford County, North Carolina. He currently resides in Shelby, NC with his wife, Lynn, and four children, Darrell III, Presley, Aubrey, and Dakota. LCDR Keller's awards and medals include a Meritorious Service Medal, a Joint Service Commendation Medal, 5 Navy Commendation Medals, 3 Navy Achievement Medals, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, 2 Navy Unit Citations, 3 Meritorious Unit Citations, 3 Battle "E" Efficiency Awards, Naval Reserve Meritorious Service Medal, 2 National Defense Medals, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, 2 Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medals, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Meritorious Volunteer Service Medal, 3 Sea Service Deployment Ribbons...(read more)