Former Bremerton resident promoted to rear admiral, focused on Navy's information systems

It means a lot for Capt. Vincent Tionquiao, a Bremerton native, to be promoted to a leadership role in the military. That's especially true for one where he will be able to keep using his cyber and information system profession — nurtured through higher education and numerous shore and overseas assignments in the past three decades — to serve the country.

Later this year, Tionquiao will be promoted to Rear Admiral (lower half). President Joe Biden in January nominated him for appointment to the grade and that nomination has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He will report to his first assignment as a flag officer — the deputy director at the Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4)/Cyber Systems, J-6 Joint Staff in Washington D.C., the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations announced on March 1.

"I am very excited and humbled," Tionquiao said about the promotion in a phone interview with Kitsap Sun. In his words, the incoming rear admiral will work in the Pentagon to support communications and information systems across the Department of Defense, all the military services and their operations in the world.

The joy and excitement of his promotion extends to his family.

"We're honored to have this opportunity to continue to serve," he said.

Tionquiao is the current Director of Maritime Operations Center for U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, Navy Space Command, and U.S. 10th Fleet in Fort Meade, Maryland. His organization handles Navy networks and communications across the globe to ensure Navy forces have the intelligence and targeting information that they need for their operations.

Tionquiao's passion for the Navy and eagerness to serve the country dates back to Bremerton, where he grew up in a Navy family and received support from Kitsap's military community in the 1980s and 1990s.

Growing up in a military town

The captain recalled the time when his family settled in Bremerton in the 1980s. Tionquiao's father, Octavio, is a retired Navy Senior Chief submarine mess specialist, who served 22 years before retiring in Bremerton in 1988. The family moved to Bremerton in 1982.

Tionquiao went to Esquire Hills Elementary, Fairview Junior High (now Fairview Middle School), and Olypmic High School, and was able to grow up with other friends from a similar background in the community.

In his childhood, he remembered going to Boomer Fest — the Bangor submarine base's annual public party featuring country music, street dance, kids' events, military memorabilia, and more — with his parents, brother and sister. He also enjoyed Silverdale's annual Whaling Days Festival.

When he graduated from Olympic High School in 1992 and tried to figure out his next step, joining the Navy seemed an obvious option.

"The pride I saw my father serving in the U.S. Navy, the community that I grew up in over there, and the support to the military. It became a natural decision for me to see what opportunities I could continue to serve whether in the Navy or in the military in general," Tionquiao said.

In 1996, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering and was commissioned from the U.S. Naval Academy, thinking that he could become a submariner like his father to serve in the silence service.

In 2003, he earned a Master of Science in Systems Engineering and Analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School, which he described as a turning point in his career in the Navy.

Focus on networks in deployment to Arabian Gulf, Western Pacific

When Tionquiao was at the postgraduate school, the Navy started branching out information professionals and communications specialists to support the fleet. They hosted a conference in Monterey, California, to look into the so-called "information professional community," where Tionquiao's school was. Coincidently, the master's student dropped in on some seminars and became very interested in the field that was just born around 2001 and 2002.

Network operations, computers and the internet had his attention. Tionquiao supplied an application to transfer to the new community and was accepted, allowing him to switch his career to a cyber-focused path.

From there, through many assignments all over the world, he helped set up networks and support the command and control in the Navy, like the ability for ships to communicate. He was once deployed to Afghanistan for eight months to help forward operating bases establish connectivity between 2008 and 2009. From 2016 to 2018, he was assigned to the Nimitz Strike Group as the Information Warfare Commander and was deployed to support joint operations between various countries in the Western Pacific, as well as operations on the Arabian Gulf.

Recalling the time with the Nimitz, he said it wasn't as long as he would've wanted to stay in the Pacific Northwest after leaving the area for over two decades. Tionquiao always appreciated the opportunity to go underway in the open ocean, he said.

"You're with a lot of shipmates, and it becomes a very tight-knit community because you're all focused on a specific mission, the safety you're looking out for each other, and executing that mission," he said.

His other assignment included working with the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West, Florida, where he supported communications for forces that were engaged in counter-illicit trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific area.

After the Nimitz, he served as the Deputy Director for Communications and Information Systems for the U.S. Pacific Fleet and as the Commanding Officer of Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station (NCTAMS) Pacific in Hawaii. In August 2022, he assumed his current position as the Maritime Operations Center Director.

Looking back, Tionquiao said the most rewarding part of his career is that he always has positive experiences working with professionals, both sailors and civilians, in this field, and the purpose of serving the country.

"While missions can be challenging, the hours can be challenging when you're on deployment, the work is hard, it's that camaraderie and esprit de corps that's built with such technical professionals that I think has been the most rewarding part," he said.

Tionquiao highlighted his missions in Afghanistan, where he worked with and learned from collegues in the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. That has also been a rewarding experience for him, Tionquiao said.

"Working with those professionals, and then having a personal sense of purpose, and then what we do and the service to our country, has been what kept me going," he said.

When sailors or officers are selected for promotion, it's a recognition of their past accomplishments and also an acknowledgment of their future potential and what they can continue to contribute, Tionquiao explained.

"In receiving this promotion...I'm honored and humbled because of, you know, that ability to continue to serve and in a various capacity," he said, adding that his parents, still living in Bremerton, were extremely happy when he called from the East Coast to deliver the good news.

Tionquiao encourages sailors who are in their early career stages to seek every opportunity the Navy provides them, whether it's learning about their homeport or traveling the world during deployments. "When you take those opportunities, other opportunities open up. You develop more skill sets," he said.

Also, just maintain a very positive attitude and always remember that sense of purpose and why they serve, the captain said.

"What we do is important for the Navy and the nation," Tionquiao said.

Kitsap Sun Archives contributed to the story.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Olympic High alum promoted to rear admiral in Navy