INDIAN ISLAND — Cmdr. Mark Charles Loose took command of Naval Magazine Indian Island last week, relieving outgoing commander, Cmdr. George Whitbred IV of the post.

Whitebred, who took command in 2006, has been selected for promotion to captain, the youngest in the Navy at the age of 42, and is transferring to U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., where he will work as an ordnance expert.

Loose, 59, most recently served as combat systems officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington.

He enlisted in the Navy in 1977 and became a commissioned officer in 1988.

“I have achieved the ultimate goal of command,” Loose said at the ceremony on the Indian Island dock on Friday.

“I am eager to set the pace for excellence.”

Naval Magazine Indian Island — which is just across Port Townsend Bay from the city of Port Townsend — is the only munitions storage and transfer depot on the West Coast for the Pacific Fleet.

The base loads and off-loads non-nuclear weapons on refitted Trident submarines, or SSGNs, each of which can carry 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.