Flag moves include 1st woman CSG commander - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Flag moves include 1st woman CSG commander

The Navy’s newest aircraft carrier will be the first to have its strike group commanded by a woman, according to an announcement Thursday.

Rear Adm. Nora Tyson has been assigned as the next commander of the Norfolk, Va.,-based Carrier Strike Group 2, which includes the carrier George H.W. Bush, according to an announcement from the Pentagon. Lt. Justin Cole, a Navy spokesman, said Tyson would be the first woman to command a carrier strike group in Navy history.

Tyson will move from her current assignment as commander of the Western Pacific Logistics Group when her orders are issued in the early summer, Cole said.

A woman has commanded an expeditionary strike group; Rear Adm. Carol Pottenger, now head of Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, took command of the Essex ESG in Japan in 2006.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced other moves Thursday:

• Rear Adm. (lower half) David Thomas Jr. will be the next commander of Naval Surface Force Atlantic, and deputy commander, Naval Surface Forces, Norfolk, Va. Thomas, who has been selected to add a second star, is commander, Carrier Strike Group 2, Norfolk, Va.

• Rear Adm. (lower half) Douglass Biesel will be assigned as commander, Navy Region Northwest, Silverdale, Wash. Biesel is commander, Navy Region Marianas/U.S. Pacific Command representative Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau/Commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Marianas.

• Rear Adm. (lower half) Paul Bushong will be assigned as commander, Navy Region Marianas/U.S. Pacific Command representative Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau/commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Marianas. Bushong is commander, Submarine Group 2, Groton, Conn.

• Rear Adm. (lower half) Michael McLaughlin will be assigned as commander, Submarine Group 2, Groton, Conn. McLaughlin is deputy director, National Military Command Center Operations Team 5 J3, Joint Staff, Washington.

• Rear Adm. John Miller will be assigned as commander, Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, Fallon, Nev. Miller is commander, Carrier Strike Group 11, San Diego.

• Rear Adm. (lower half) Frank Morneau will be assigned as deputy director, expeditionary warfare, N85B, Office of the CNO, Washington. Morneau is deputy director, CJ3, Multi-National Force-Iraq, Baghdad.

• Capt. Katherine Gregory, who has been selected for promotion to rear admiral (lower half), will be assigned as commander, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific, Pearl Harbor. Gregory is chief of staff, 1st Naval Construction Division/Naval Construction Forces Command, Norfolk, Va.