The commander and executive officer of the Littoral Combat Ship USS Montgomery (LCS-8) were relieved on Thursday “due to a loss of confidence in their ability to command,” the Navy announced.
Montgomery commander Cmdr. Richard Zamberlan and executive officer Cmdr. Phillip Lundberg were removed from their commands by Capt. Marc Crawford, the commander of Surface Division 11.
“Cmdr. Dustin Lonero, from USS Coronado (LCS-4), is assigned as commanding officer until a permanent relief is identified. Zamberlan and Lundberg will be reassigned to commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet,” Naval Surface Force said in a statement.
The service did not detail specifics on the circumstances into the relief, but a Navy official told USNI News on Thursday the removal of Zamberlan and Lundberg stemmed from the handling of a sexual harassment investigation.
Zamberlan had previously commanded LCS USS Omaha (LCS-12) and USS Kansas City (LCS-22). He then transferred to USS Tulsa (LCS-16) Gold Crew on the ship’s first deployment. He was the executive officer of the command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19).
Lundberg had previously served at Task Force 56 in U.S. 5th Fleet, as a department head aboard USS Shoup (DDG-86), Assistant Office-in-Charge of Costal Riverine Squadron 3 detachment Yorktown.
