FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla -- This weekend's liberty call at Port Everglades for the USS Nitze naval destroyer is also a homecoming for its commander. Navy Commander Robert Hein Jr. grew up in Fort Lauderdale and graduated from St. Thomas High School.

"Going to the Naval Academy was a good start," said Hein. "I was trying to decide what to do when I grew up and I think I made the right call," he told Local 10's Glenna Milberg.

Hein commands a crew of 300 on board one of the United States Navy's most technologically advanced warships. Dressed in a crisp white uniform Thursday afternoon, the commander walked at a brisk pace across the deck of the ship as sailors snapped to attention and saluted as he passed.

"Six months from now, when I'm not the Commander anymore, they’ll be saluting someone else, and I'll just be another guy in the way at the Naval Exchange," he said.

Hein is the USS Nitze's second commander, but its first to see deployment. The warship returned last month from six months on duty patrolling the waters around the Horn of Africa.

Hein insists Fort Lauderdale is still the center of his universe.

His father, who was a Navy pilot during the Vietnam war said he couldn't be more proud.

"If his mother was here, she'd be jumping up and down. This is one of the happiest days of my life," said Robert Hein Sr. "I'm so proud seeing him do so well, and being so happy at what he chose to do in life," he said.

The USS Nitze is on liberty call at Port Everglades until Monday.