New Hampshire
Navy Relieves Commander of Reserve Center in New Hampshire
The Navy has relieved the commanding officer of its Navy Reserve Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, according to a statement released Friday.
Cmdr. Joseph Dearing was relieved from leadership of the reserve center by Capt. Christian Parilla, the commander of the Navy Reserve Region Readiness and Mobilization Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
The Navy maintains 122 reserve centers around the country. They typically act as the first and primary point of contact between reservist sailors and the Navy for anything from administrative tasks to drill days.
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Dearing is the second reserve center commander to be relieved in the last six months. In December, the Navy also relieved the commanding officer of its reserve center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, over his personal conduct.
Dearing’s relief, which was officially over a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” appears to be the Navy’s fourth firing of a commanding officer this year.
Loss of confidence is a boilerplate reason provided by the military services that can encompass anything from consistent poor performance by a commander on key evaluations to personal actions like drunken driving.
A Navy official told Military.com on condition of anonymity that the reason for the firing was over performance-based issues and not any misconduct on the part of Dearing. The official added he was not under investigation.
Based on public announcements, it appears that the Navy fired 14 commanding officers in 2024. In 2023, the official relief total was 15. There are currently around 1,600 commanding officers in the active-duty Navy across all communities.
According to Dearing’s service record that was provided to Military.com by the Navy, he began his Navy career as an enlisted sailor in 2000 when he reported to boot camp and then went on to work in the Navy’s aviation community, taking jobs at Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 9 in China Lake, California, and then Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron (VQ) 2 at Whidbey Island, Washington.
In 2008, Dearing was accepted into the Navy’s Seaman to Admiral-21 commissioning program, got his degree at Jacksonville University in Florida and became a reserve surface warfare officer in 2010.
As an officer, he was stationed on the destroyer USS Stethem for four years before attending the Naval War College and finally becoming the commander of the reserve center in Manchester in September.
According to records, Dearing was awarded the Surface Warfare Officer Insignia as well as the Enlisted Aviation Warfare Specialist qualification.
His awards include two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation medals and five Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals as well as a Meritorious Unit Commendation, among other unit and campaign awards.
According to the Navy’s statement, Cmdr. Christopher Worthy will temporarily serve as the reserve center’s commanding officer until a permanent replacement is designated. Dearing has been temporarily reassigned to Navy Reserve Region Readiness and Mobilization Command in Norfolk.
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New Hampshire
2 killed, 1 seriously injured in NH crash
Two people are dead and another person has serious injuries following a crash Friday in Rumney, New Hampshire.
The Rumney Fire Department says it responded to Route 25 just after 1:30 p.m. for a motor vehicle crash with entrapment. Crews, including from Plymouth-Fire Rescue and the Wentworth Fire Department, arrived on scene to find two vehicles in the road that appeared to have been involved in a head-on collision.
The driver from one vehicle was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, the fire department said. The driver and a passenger in the second vehicle were both pronounced dead on scene.
The victims’ names have not been released at this time.
Route 25 was closed for approximately five hours for an on-scene investigation and clean up, the fire department said.
It’s unclear what caused the fatal crash. The Rumney Police Department is investigating.
New Hampshire
Fireball spotted streaking over towns in southeast New Hampshire: video
An eagle-eyed photographer captured the moment a shining fireball cut across the sky in southeast New Hampshire early Saturday evening.
Rob Wright, a professional photographer based in New Hampshire, shared dash camera footage of the suspected meteor — which he called a “bright green boldie” — blazing straight downwards while he was cruising through Portsmouth.
“That was one of the best I’ve seen and likely the best I’ve ever caught on camera,” Wright boasted on Facebook.
Wright was approaching a traffic circle in the coastal town when a pulsing yellow light appeared in the sky. It tracked downwards in a straight line and released a brighter spurt of light before disappearing entirely, all in the span of eight seconds, according to the video.
Others in Nashua and Londonderry, both located southwest of Portsmouth and closer to the Massachusetts border, told WMUR that they also saw the suspected meteor.
Several other highlighted sightings around the same time in Dover, Bedford, Rindge, Hooksett and Jaffrey, which are all within a 90-mile radius of Portsmouth, according to the American Meteor Society.
Locals who follow Wright’s work reported seeing the fireball, too. One woman who also lives in Portsmouth commented that she “thought it must have been a firework.”
It’s unclear what exactly the fireball was.
Meteorites present similarly to a fireball when they’re plummeting from orbit — but leave a more obvious impact.
In August, a 3-foot meteor splintered in the air while it was flying over Georgia and left fragments scattered all over Newton County. The explosion caused a sonic boom equivalent to 20 tons of TNT exploding at once.
Pieces of the meteor were found all over the county, including one that crashed through the roof of a home.
Over the summer in 2024, a meteor disintegrated about 30 miles above Midtown Manhattan. The force shook parts of New York City, rattling midday commuters.
New Hampshire
Firefighters battle large blaze at home near NH’s Loon Mountain
Firefighters from multiple northern New Hampshire communities helped battle a blaze at a home near Loon Mountain on Saturday night.
Campton-Thornton Fire Rescue said in a Facebook post Sunday morning that they responded to the fire on Crooked Mountain Road in Lincoln around 7 p.m. Several other area departments also responded and helped shuttle water to the scene from a site in nearby Woodstock.
No one was home at the time and no firefighters were injured battling the blaze. Fire crews cleared the scene around 4 a.m.
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