Flag Officer Assignments 21 October miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
31 NAVAL STATION EVERETT, Wash. – Rear Adm. Christopher J. Sweeney relieved Rear Adm. James A. Kirk as Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 11, during a ceremony held at Naval Station Everett, April 30.
Kirk, from Hershey, Pennsylvania, assumed command of CSG-11 in May 2020. He is a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has attended both the U.S. Naval War College and U.S. Army War College graduating with a master’s degree in National Security Studies. He has served in a variety of afloat and ashore billets as a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO).
While under Kirk’s command, CSG-11 operated in U.S. 5th Fleet in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, part of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission. In September 2020, the strike group began operations in the Arabian Gulf, conducting the first aircraft carrier Strait of Hormuz transit in nearly a year. CSG-11 also supported Operation Inherent Resolve, providing close air support and defensive counter-air mis
Kitsap Sun
BREMERTON, Wash. – At long last, the USS Nimitz returned home Sunday, close to a year after the aircraft carrier left Sinclair Inlet in Washington state.
The 100,000-ton warship, in completing a deployment that included flying sorties against the Islamic State in the Middle East to navigating the disputed waters of the South China Sea, returns to Bremerton, Washington, having logged 99,000 miles. Navy leaders have called it a record-long journey for a carrier in the years after World War II.
Most of its 3,000-plus sailors, roughly half of which were serving in their first-ever deployment, boarded the warship April 1, 2020 to quarantine for COVID-19. With its crew manning the rails, Nimitz squeezed through Rich Passage to Sinclair Inlet Sunday, just 25 days shy of a full year away from families.