ROCKLAND – There’s a new boss at the Bird Block, where U.S. Coast Guard Station Rockland is housed on Tillson Avenue.

Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Brown, 42, took command of the station Friday when Chief Warrant Officer Kyle Santheson retired after 24 years of service.

Brown, 42, also has been in the military for 24 years and has served aboard ships and at several search and rescue stations. His most recent assignment was as the assistant operations officer at Group Portland.

As a chief boatswain’s mate, Brown was officer-in-charge at Woods Hole Station on Cape Cod, which also was a command position.

During more than two decades, Brown spent time aboard the cutter Chase, a 378-foot high-endurance cutter out of Boston, and the cutter Grand Isle, a 110-foot patrol boat, based in Gloucester, Mass.

He served at stations in Boston, Barn-egat, N.J., Fairport Harbor, Ohio, and Castle Hill, R.I., and on the Gulf Strike Team in Mobile, Ala., which is a traveling hazardous materials unit. While on the strike team, he was deployed to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

After graduating in 1980 from Canton High School in Canton, Pa., Brown enlisted in the Coast Guard and attended boot camp at Cape May, N.J. He quickly moved up the ranks as a boatswain’s mate, becoming a chief petty officer in 1995. He was commissioned as a warrant officer in 2000.

Among Brown’s military awards are three Coast Guard commendations, three Coast Guard Achievement and six Coast Guard Good Conduct medals.

Dressed in his work uniform on Tuesday, Brown said he often likes to get out from behind the desk to do hands-on training and to interact with the crew.

He lives in Cumberland with his wife, Litza, who is municipal television director for Yarmouth. They have a 20-year-old son, who attends Southern Maine Community College.