The Navy announced back on Dec. 23, 2020, that Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt will assume command of USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), marking the first time a female commanding officer will lead the crew of one of the Navy’s 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
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. “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, Wisc., 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.
“That law absolutely changed my life,” Bauernschmidt told CBS News in 2018. “We were the first class that graduated knowing and feeling honored with the privilege to be able to go serve alongside the rest of our comrades in combat.”
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).
Bauernschmidt has accumulated more than 3,000 flight hours in naval helicopters aboard various aircraft carriers throughout her career, according to her official Navy biography. Her missions have taken her from Alaska for Exercise Northern Edge to Southwest Asia for Operation Enduring Freedom. She completed the Aviation Nuclear Officer program before taking up her XO post aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Service is about “contributing to something greater than yourself,” Bauernschmidt told CBS News.
“For me, it is about supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States. But it’s also about these young men and women that I lead every day,” she said. “They’re pretty awesome.”
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