The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of its Colorado-based Information Operations Command, according to a statement released Thursday.
Cmdr. Christopher Johnson was relieved from leadership of NIOC, a subordinate command of Naval Information Operations Command Pacific headquartered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, by Capt. Chelsey Zwicker, the commodore of the Hawaii headquarters.
Johnson is the third commander of a Navy information warfare command to be removed by the service in the last six months, though the previous two commanders ran schoolhouses while this was an operational command.
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In November, the sea service relieved the commander of the San Diego-based schoolhouse for information warfare, and in January the Navy fired the commander of its Norfolk-based information warfare school in two unrelated firings.
Johnson’s relief, which was officially over a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” appears to be the Navy’s second firing of a commanding officer this year.
Loss of confidence is a boilerplate reason provided by the military services that can encompass anything from consistent poor performance by a commander on key evaluations to personal actions like drunken driving.
A Navy official told Military.com on condition of anonymity that the reason for the firing was over performance-based issues and not any misconduct on the part of Johnson.
NIOC Colorado is based at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora, and “provides a wide range of information warfare support to the fleet” that includes sailors trained in collecting signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber operations, according to its official website.
Based on public announcements, it appears that the Navy fired 14 commanding officers in 2024. In 2023, the official relief total was 15. There are currently around 1,600 commanding officers in the active-duty Navy across all communities.
According to his official Navy biography, Johnson was commissioned through the service’s Officer Candidate School after completing his bachelor of science degree in physics from the University of Michigan.
Johnson’s career included working with EP-3E signals intelligence collection squadrons in Misawa, Japan, and Bahrain in the Middle East, as well as three sea deployments aboard the aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Johnson also completed two deployments to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Prior to coming to NIOC Colorado in May 2023, Johnson served as the executive officer of the Navy’s Information Warfare Training Command at Corry Station in Pensacola, Florida.
His qualifications include information warfare officer, surface warfare officer, and naval aviation observer. His awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, among others.
According to the Navy’s statement, Cmdr. Mark Tuner, the naval information forces liaison officer to U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, will temporarily serve as NIOC Colorado’s commanding officer until a permanent replacement is designated.
Related: Navy Relieves Another Information Warfare School Commander in Unrelated Firing
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