Bergen resident Richard Stacy promoted to Chief Petty Officer in the New York Naval Militia

LATHAM, NY (10/26/2015)(readMedia)-- Richard Stacy, a Bergen resident, has been promoted to Chief Petty Officer in the New York Naval Militia.

The New York Naval Militia is the naval component of New York's Military Forces which also includes the New York Army and Air National Guard.

Most of the 2,900 members of the Naval Militia are serving members of the Navy and Marine Corps Reserve who also agree to serve as members of the state force when called by the governor. They provide skills to the state ranging from boat handlers to construction experts. The Naval Militia also operates a fleet of nine patrol boats in the Military Emergency Boat Service.

A small number of Naval Reserve members, like Stacy, are retired from the Navy or Marine Corps and serve as state volunteers.

Stacy enlisted in the Navy in 1976 and served in Naval Mobile Construction Battalion Forty based at Port Hueneme, California before transferring to the Navy Reserve. As a member of the Navy Reserve he served with Reserve Naval Mobile Construction Battalions 20 and 13 at the Naval Operational Support Center in Rochester.

Stacy serves as the Naval Militia liaison officer to the Navy Reserve in Rochester and is also the regional coordinator for the Military Emergency Boat Service.

He was New York Naval Militia member of the Year for 2011, and received the New York State Humane Service Medal for his service following Tropical Storm Lee in 2011, Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and a snowstorm in Erie County in November 2014.

He and his wife have four children, and he works as a self-employed contractor and home inspector.