 As the Sixth Fleet Detachment 802 Commanding Officer, Alford served as acting Sixth Fleet Chief of Staff for numerous theater-wide national, multi-national and NATO exercises, including Partnership for Peace exercises.Also during this command he served on active duty as the Sixth Fleet Chief of Staff, on board USS "LaSalle", Gaeta, Italy, for a period of in excess of six months.During his tenure as the Chief of Staff, the Sixth Fleet conducted five non-combatant evacuations, served as the commander of three Joint Task Forces (two of them simultaneously), completed an historic Black Sea cruise and prepared the first battle plans for Kosovo operations.