 In 1994, he was ordered to command USS "Leyte Gulf" (CG-55), a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser named for the battle in which the first USS "Samuel B. Roberts" (DE-413) was sunk.He deployed to the Persian Gulf on "Leyte Gulf" and was the commander of the Iraqi Oil Embargo Task Force in the Red Sea and later Embargo Commander and Strike Commander in the Northern Persian Gulf.