Chamberlain, who will turn the reigns of command over to Capt. John A. Sears III, will be joining Navy Staff at the Pentagon.

Chamberlain said he is the first NSAW commanding officer to be responsible for the WNY, Naval Support Facility Anacostia and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Anything that affects those bases is the responsibility of the installation commanding officer, said Chamberlain.

‘‘A lot of times issues are brought directly to the attention of the regional commander, who still bears the historic title of Commandant Naval District Washington,” he said. ‘‘Of course the chain of command should lead them first to the installation commander.”

Many people remain unaware that the NDW commandant is a regional commander, with responsibility for a myriad of installations throughout the National Capital Region. NSAW, comprised of the Navy Yard, NSF Anacostia, National Maritime Intelligence Center and the Naval Research Laboratory, is one of five installation commands (the others are NSA North Potomac, NSA South Potomac, NSA Annapolis and NAS Patuxent River) under NDW. Chamberlain knows this can get confusing, from personal experience.

Two months after assuming command of the NSAW in 2005, Chamberlain ran into someone he hadn’t seen in 10 years. When the person asked him what he was doing on the Yard, Chamberlain said he was the commanding officer. The person said, ‘‘Of what?” Chamberlain responded, ‘‘Of the Navy Yard.” The person remarked, ‘‘I didn’t know the Navy Yard had a commanding officer.”

‘‘Over the past three years, working with tenant commands and the day to day issues of running the base has made this much less of a problem,” Chamberlain said.

His main goal was to create a cohesive unit, with his department heads, to provide the best base operating support possible to NSAW, making it a better place to work for Sailors, Department of Defense civilian employees and contractors. ‘‘We’ve come a long way in three years,” said Chamberlain.

Among the plans which have come to fruition is Mordecai Booth’s Public House, which opened in August on the first floor of building 101 on the Yard.

NSAW collaborated with Morale, Welfare and Recreation on the layout of the pub. They also decided that the tavern would be named after someone from the Yard’s history.

Chamberlain wanted to the bar named in honor of Mordecai Booth, the principle clerk in the office of Capt. Thomas Tingey, the first WNY commandant, during the War of 1812.

‘‘There were a lot of suggestions to name it after Captain Tingey or to name it after one of the other commandants of the Navy Yard’s past,” said Chamberlain. ‘‘I didn’t want to do that. I wanted it to be connected with the workers. Mordecai was a chief purser. He wasn’t the top guy of the Navy Yard. He was a worker.”

(Editor’s note: complete coverage of the NSAW change of command will appear in the May 15 Waterline.)