August 9, 2021 | Spotlight on Women
Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt is now the first female commanding officer of a nuclear aircraft carrier in United States Navy history. The USS Abraham Lincoln is one of the Navy’s 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers homed at Naval Air Station North Island, California, and a strategic part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt graduated from the Naval Academy in 1994, the year women were first allowed to serve on combat ships. She became a naval aviator in 1996 and deployed with the USS John Young to the Northern Arabian Gulf. Capt. Bauernschmidt also served as the senior military advisor to the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. State Department and commander of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 70 and the amphibious transport dock San Diego. Later on in her career, Capt. Bauernschmidt completed the Aviation Nuclear Officer program before becoming the first female executive officer on a nuclear aircraft carrier in 2016, also on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Upon taking command of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Capt. Bauernschmidt stated, “There is no more humbling sense of responsibility than to know you are entrusted with the care of the people who have chosen to protect our nation.”
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