C-Falls grad patrols the globe as ship commander

When Brian Sorenson was growing up in Columbia Falls, he never expected his future would be on the high seas.

“Absolutely not,” he said last week. “I wanted to be a game warden.”

But at the time, 3,000 people applied for the one game warden position Sorenson wanted. So after graduating from high school in 1987, Sorenson went into the U.S. Naval Academy.

Sorenson graduated from the Academy in 1991 and has since had a distinguished 21-year career in the Navy. Last month, Cmdr. Sorenson completed his command of the USS Mitscher, a guided missile destroyer with a crew of 290 sailors.

While under his command, the USS Mitscher guarded waters near Yemen, Iran and Somalia, to name a few global hot spots. Somalia garnered headlines in recent months after its pirates attacked civilian ships.

“I dealt with (pirates) quite frequently,” Sorenson said.

The USS Mitscher didn’t always embark on military operations, however. Last September, for example, the destroyer helped an ailing fishing boat off the Yemeni coast, providing water for its crew and safe passage in busy shipping lanes until it could reach shore.

Sorenson was commander of the USS Mitscher for two years. Prior to that, he served in various capacities aboard the USS Shiloh. He was also an engineering officer for the USS Mitscher and USS Monterey.

In addition, Sorenson served as the surface strike and maritime interception officer in the George Washington Battle Group and was the executive officer for the USS Bulkeley. He holds master’s degrees in financial management and national security strategy.

Today, Sorenson is the deputy commodore of a squadron of ships while he is living ashore in Norfolk, Va. He and his wife Michele have two sons, Christian, 15, and Andrew, 12. They also own a home in Meadow Lake, where they stay when they visit here.

“I’m still a card-carrying Montanan,” he said.

Sorenson said he hopes to get back to Columbia Falls this summer or this fall, where his parents, Greg and Susan Sorenson, live. Greg was a printer at the Hungry Horse News for decades.