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Ship captain can't wait to arrive in Mayport

One of the men responsible for getting the USS Iwo Jima to Mayport is Executive Officer Dana Gordon.

“I'm getting the opportunity to go back home with family so it'll be nice,” said Gordon, U.S. navy.

His wife and daughters both live in the river city.

“I was probably one of the biggest advocates on the ship for us going down there,” he said.

Over the next couple months Gordon will take the helm of the ship as her commanding officer.

Gordon said he was in Mayport when most ships were still there, so he knows firsthand what the Iwo Jima and Fort McHenry will mean to the community he calls his second home.

The USS Iwo Jima and the Fort McHenry are in the Atlantic Ocean, less than 24 hours away from shores.