A Columbia Falls native is now in command of a guided-missile destroyer and its 300-member crew.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Brian Sorenson assumed command of the 505-foot USS Mitscher during a ceremony aboard the warship at Naval Station Norfolk on Friday.

Sorenson graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 1987, attended the U.S. Naval Academy and since has excelled in the U.S. Navy, earning command of the Mitscher after serving on four other ships.

While his latest appointment isn’t accompanied by a pay raise and is not technically a promotion, Sorenson said last week it is the realization of a long-time goal.

He called it “another progression in a surface warrior’s career.”

“It’s something that we all want to achieve and very few people get to,” Sorenson said.

Sorenson graduated from the Naval Academy in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He served as a propulsion assistant, navigator, administrative officer and deck department head aboard the USS Shiloh from 1993 to 1996.

After that, he earned a Master of Science degree in financial management at the Naval Post-graduate School in 1998.

He then served on the Mitscher — the ship he now commands — as its chief engineer from 1999 to 2000. During the following three years, he worked aboard ships supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and other missions in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea.

In recent years, he has served aboard the USS Buckley and as an executive assistant connected with the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“I’ve been a long way from home quite a few times,” he said.

Sorenson now will lead the officers and crew of Mitscher on a deployment with the USS George H.W. Bush Strike Group. He said the Mitscher will provide security as the group travels across the Atlantic, around the Horn of Africa and north toward the ever-active Middle East region.

Sorenson replaced Cmdr. Sterling Dawley as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Mitscher.

Sorenson is the son of Greg and Sue Sorenson of Columbia Falls.