Amy Bauernschmidt entered the Navy as a flight trainee in 1994, shortly after receiving her Bachelor’s degree. In 1997, she was appointed as the Quality Assurance officer at Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 45. After a few years, she became an Instructor Pilot on the HASSL-41 in San Diego, as well as the Executive Assistant of Carrier Strike Group 7. In 2004, she returned to HASSL-51 in Japan as an operations officer. Amy Bauernschmidt worked there for about four years before returning to Washington, DC to work as the Executive Assistant and Program Manager for The Joint Chiefs of Staff.
She was appointed Commanding and Executive Officer of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 70 in Florida in 2010. She held the role for over three years before leaving to pursue her Master’s degree. In 2013, she returned to the State Department as a Senior Military Advisor in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues. She earned a lot of experience in the Navy working at many jobs throughout the years and was shortly commissioned as the Executive Officer on the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2016.
Amy was the first woman to hold that position in the United States Navy, and she soon became the Commanding Officer of the USS San Diego, making yet more history. She recently acquired command of the nuclear carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in August 2021, making her the first woman in the US Navy to command a nuclear carrier. Amy’s Executive Officer is Captain Patrick Baker, while the carrier’s Commands Master Chief is Commands Master Chief Brian Happli.
