Captain Mark Cedrun

Captain Mark Cedrun is a highly decorated, recently retired, Navy Captain.  He has been awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit
(4 times), the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal, (5 times), the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (4 awards), the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and has worn numerous campaign and unit awards.

If you saw the 2013 movie with Tom Hanks called “Captain Philips,” you will know that Mark was the Commanding Officer of the USS Boxer, which was the ship sent to rescue Captain Phillips. The movie was billed as “an American Thriller film” based on the 2009 rescue of the crew and Captain of the US Flagged MV Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked by Somali Pirates. It was the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years. Mark will recount his personal experience and give the club the inside account of the real story. The movie is only the beginning of the rescue saga. He will literally tell us where the bodies are buried.

Besides his Command of the USS Boxer, the flagship for the Commander, Task Force 151, Captain Cedrun was Commanding Officer of the USS Peleliu while it participated in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations for the flood victims in Pakistan and combat operations in Afghanistan in support of OEF. From April 2012 to his retirement in June 2014, Captain Cedrun served as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Commander, Naval Surface Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet. During this time, Captain Cedrun served as the Deputy Commander, Expeditionary Strike Group FIVE, deployed to Bahrain.