The U.S. Navy has announced that Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt will assume command of USS Abraham Lincoln, marking the first time a female commanding officer will lead the crew of one of the U.S. Navy’s 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

The U.S. Navy say that Bauernschmidt will take command of Lincoln this summer, upon completion of the nuclear power, aviation, and leadership training required of aircraft carrier COs.

“I am incredibly honored and humbled to be selected,” said Bauernschmidt in a news release. “I love leading Sailors and I take that responsibility extremely seriously.”

Bauernschmidt was also the first woman to serve as the executive officer aboard an aircraft carrier, a position she held from September 2016 to January 2019, also on the Lincoln.

“Bauernschmidt is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from the United Stated Naval Academy in May 1994, the first graduating class in which women were allowed to serve aboard combatant ships and aircraft. 

She was designated as a Naval Aviator in 1996 and served with several helicopter squadrons throughout her career. She has previously commanded the “Spartans” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 70 and amphibious transport dock USS San Diego (LPD-22).”

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

42 COMMENTS

        • Read what I wrote! I did not say that any of the vaccines available now were effective, I merely expressed a hope that an effective vaccine would be available!

          • It depends. Like in this case when what they say today contradicts with they just said in the past : it is necessary a long time for new vaccines because safety.

            The question you should make to yourself is: would you be a nazi in nazi germany or one of bolchevik ? What tools do you have to know that the “major legislative and governing bodies” are not selling you lies?

          • The vaccine works very similarly to vaccines already in widespread use, there is no need for extra long term testing. It has gone through the same tests and regulatory bodies any other vaccine has.

            Are you seriously trying to compare the current government to Nazi germany? What do they have to gain from lying about the effectiveness of the virus?

            If you are personally against the vaccine, keep it to yourself. Convincing others not to take it damages their health and can potentially be extremely hazardous to their health.

  1. My thoughts are: Is she a competent and qualified officer for the position she will be taking on? I do not care about anything else.

        • There are some histories about women promoted in USN behyond their capabilities, i am reminding of a tragic story of a fighter pilot.
          For a men you will question if it is the “Old boys” club, if there were family links you would question also his/her competency,or party affiliation.

          Nevertheless for any risky operation to be taken you need absolute confidence in others and for better and worse that only happens if there is shared culture and physical/intelectual capabilities. Now that capability in other part of military that can lead to tunnel vision and reckless behavior.
          That is why many great battalion commanders are unable to perform at divsional level, and division commanders might not perform at theater level.
          Likewise some women and men will question men capability to provide emotional support for strangers in social work. We all have a baggage of thousands years of information in us.

      • Wokeness and quotas from the President-elect. He isn’t President yet and won’t be for another 2 weeks, so I seriously doubt he or VP have anything to do with it.

          • Sorry I was saying the opposite. I was quoting George Royce’s “wokeness and quotas” remark. Forgot to put in the quotation marks sorry.

            I was trying to say that it wasn’t wokeness or quotas from Biden or Kamala, as they’re not in power yet. Also, commander of a navy ship, even a carrier, isn’t something even a president can appoint.

        • The President-elect has had no say in this. I’m sure the new commanding officer has had many years of experience and has passed numerous rigorous tests to get this command – good luck to her.

      • Certainly – in the US and UK navies – no-one gets appointed to a position like that unless they are seriously competent.

      • The culture of woke and quotas which is basically Marxo-Fascism as it is in the end a form of racial and sexual corporatism is already part of USN and it is a culture that Biden and Kamala share. For Biden i suspect is more of convenience since he is already of an older generation.

      • With the experience of 26 years in the Navy, and executive officer for 3 years onboard the Lincoln, she is more than qualified. Some people really need to get over women in commanding positions. These professionals have nothing to prove.

      • I would have much more respect for this boiler plate political PR if at least told does what she had done in her career specially what contact she had with combat instead of being an helicopter pilot and LSD captain.
        Now that does not say she better or worse in the end than a fighter pilot that might not have the temperament to manage 5000 sailors ..
        The only thing am uncomfortable is that she did not commanded a proper combat ship where raiding, attack, disrupt the adversary is a capability that needs to honed and trained as carrier captain.
        Commanding a LSD do not have that test.

        • “Bauernschmidt was also the first woman to serve as the executive officer aboard an aircraft carrier, a position she held from September 2016 to January 2019, also on the Lincoln.”
          I think being the XO of an aircraft carrier for two and a half years is a better qualification for commanding a carrier than flying an F-18 is. Just my opinion.

          • I agree with that, but my point was assuming that a pilot would have also further experience in carrier ops not just flying aircraft , i don’t think just flying an aircraft is qualification to command an aircraft carrier.
            This women had experience commanding a ship , she is helo flier and was carrier XO for 2 years, in my opinion the only thing his missing for me outside is the sneaky training that a naval combat captain should have.
            I wonder also if these high level commanders should not go for a time under the sea. I find the “class” split between submariners and surface crews undesirable at this command level.

          • I think the USN knows exactly what is required to command a aircraft carrier don’t you, they have been selecting carrier commands for decades.

          • Argument of authority aha, with that you shut this site for any article.

            Does it? How many bungled commands have USN handed over in last 10 years? i could even bring the WW2.

          • And probably all men. At the end of the day, the USN don’t appoint command of a very expensive nuclear powered aircraft carrier and it’s air wing with over 5000 individuals lightly, She will have proven herself worthy of such a command position many times over.

        • She was executive officer on the Lincoln for 3 years. Everything else you said was utter nonsense. Nobody gets command of a carrier without a very comprehensive proven track record. She also has 26 years for experience in the navy. If it was a man, you wouldn’t question it.

          • Because it is posted here, we don’t discuss what is not posted.
            If you bring or the post author bring other carrier captains and their past positions we can compare and discuss.

          • Her experience will reflect her ability to command, that’s why she has been given the responsibility.

          • Do I have to spell it out. She’s been picked for good reason. Because she has proven herself capable of command of such a vessel.

          • Yes you have spell it out, experience does not translate necessarily to ability to command.
            Even in those that command.
            As an example an excellent battalion commander do not necessarily translate to a good brigade commander. And a brigade commander will not to a necessarily be a good theater commander. Rommel is a typical example of a commander with a narrow capability.

          • Well, I think I’ll trust the USN’s command selection processes over a random bloke on the Internet.

          • They demoted several admirals and commanders in last 10 years.
            A side note, if the past is a relevant to the future, several competent of commanders in peace would not be good in combat.. So we still have that added layer of complexity.
            With current drive to conformism and consensus -a sort of corporatism avant la lettre – i would not be surprised that western world will be surprised about the future…

  2. I’m sure she’ll do a great job…………… as long as she doesn’t have to reverse (sorry everyone, i couldn’t help it)

  3. One of the best jobs going apart from commanding an SSN. Good luck to her, my only question is after commanding a carrier what the hell do you do then, everything would seem like boring. Even commanding a battlegroup is more of an administration job. Not only that but if I remember correctly a Admiral cannot command a flagship to do anything, the Captain is fully responsible and can overide an Admiral if the skipper thinks that the Admiral is putting the ship into danger.

    As for some of the comments about being a woman, who the hell cares as long as she or he is qualified to command such a vessel let them get on with it. My opinion is simple I don’t care if you are black white or green with pink spots, male or female, if your qualified for the job do it, take the responsability and carry on. I do note however that this lady has no fast jet experiance, however she does have the Air Officer who will advise what can and cannot be done with the Air Wing.

    So good luck to her in her new command and hope she gets the support from her Officers and CPOs.

  4. Sad to say there’s a load of bull and clap trap in these comments, some posters are really showing their true colours.

    First and foremost the USN wouldn’t give command of a Nimitz to just anyone, whether that be a man, woman, be they black, white or even blue.
    Secondly having serious command experience she’s more than qualified to progress to this position.
    Thirdly if you check out what’s on her chest (no seriously) you can see all you need to know. If in doubt google what her bars and ribbons are and then try coming back with ‘not qualified’.
    Lastly, I’m pretty sure if she can handle 6000 ish sailors and airmen she’d eat most of you for dinner.
    Move on!, this isn’t the 1920’s.

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