CAPT. DAVID P. WROE
Commander, Destroyer Squadron 22
15 March 2022
Hailing from Cape Cod, Mass., CAPT Wroe received his commission in 1999 through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. He graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Political Science. Wroe earned a Master’s in Business Administration with a Minor in International Relations from Salve Regina University in 2006, and a Master’s in Military Studies from U.S. Marine Corps University, Command and Staff College in 2014.
A career Surface Warfare Officer, his sea assignments include USS
Stout (DDG 55) as Damage Control Assistant and Main Propulsion Assistant, and USS
Forrest Sherman (DDG 98) as Engineer Officer. He commanded the rotational crew
Patrol Coastal Crew MIKE, and commanded USS
Hurricane (PC 3), USS
Tempest (PC 2), and USS
Sirocco (PC 6) during a six-month deployment in support of Combined Task Force Iraqi Maritime. He volunteered for an Individual Augmentee assignment as the first Executive and Operations Officer in the re-designated USS
Ponce (AFSB(I) 15), deploying her to U.S. Central Command to support Mine Countermeasures, Riverine, and Special Operations forces. Wroe served as Executive Officer in USS
Cole (DDG 67) later fleeting up as
Cole’s 14th Commanding Officer in April 2016. Wroe led
Cole through an intensive training cycle and a highly successful 7-month deployment to the Fifth Fleet, serving as both Air Defense and Ballistic Missile Defense Commanders with the
Cole team earning the
Destroyer Squadron 22 Battle E award for 2017. He previously served as Deputy Commander,
Destroyer Squadron 22.
Ashore, Wroe served as lead instructor of the DDG 51 class engineering curriculum in the Engineering and Material Readiness Department at Surface Warfare Officers School Command Newport, R.I. and was designated a Master Training Specialist. His Joint assignment was to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington D.C., in the Directorate of Management (later J6), Office of the Chief Information Officer where he oversaw IT Customer Support for 3500 members of the Joint Staff, including direct support for over 75 Flag and General Officers and the National Military Command Center. In 2010 he was selected as the Directorate of Management’s Action Officer of the Year. He later completed a Master’s in Military Studies and Joint Professional Military Education Phase 1 while a resident student at U.S. Marine Corps University, Command and Staff College, Quantico, Virginia. Following
Cole, Wroe served on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations, as the Executive Assistant to Director, Assessments Division (OPNAV N81). He then served on the headquarters staff of the Executive Director, U.S. Fleet Forces Command as the founder and deputy, Fleet Integrated Readiness and Analysis (USFFC N02R).
Wroe has various personal, unit, and campaign decorations but is most proud of decorations earned with his Sailors – “Battle E” –
Forrest Sherman and
Cole (2), Iraq Campaign Medal –
Sirocco, and a Meritorious Unit Commendation –
Ponce. CAPT Wroe has been published in both
Proceedings and
Navy Times.