Navy Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt became the first woman to command a US Navy aircraft carrier and has been assigned to take command on the USS Abraham Lincoln this summer. Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt is one of six officers recommended to command a nuclear-powered carrier in fiscal 2022. Also selected for the job were Capts. Colin Day, David Duff, Brent Gaut, David-Tavis Pollard and Craig Sicola.
“I am incredibly honoured and humbled to be selected,” Bauernschmidt said in a statement. “I love leading sailors and I take that responsibility extremely seriously.”
Bauernschmidt previously served as the USS Lincoln’s executive officer — another first for a woman — from 2016-2019. After leaving the Lincoln, Bauernschmidt served as the commanding officer of the amphibious transport dock USS San Diego, a command she left in October. In 2016 Bauernschmidt was the first woman to serve as executive officer of a nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Bauernschmidt’s 1994 USNA graduating class was the first whose women were allowed to serve aboard combatant ships and aircraft. A native of Milwaukee, Wisc., she earned her naval aviator wings in 1996, according to her biography. She has tallied more than 3,000 flight hours in naval aircraft.
USS Abraham Lincoln returned to San Diego earlier this year, and she is currently pier side for the long period of routine maintenance and training between carrier deployments.