The First Female Commander of a U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group

Nora W. Tyson is the first woman to command a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier task group after assuming command of Carrier Strike Group Two on July 29, 2010. U.S. Navy carrier strike groups are employed in a variety of roles, all of which involve gaining and maintaining sea control - "A Global Force for Good." According to The Official Website of the United States Navy

A native of Memphis, Tenn., Rear Adm. Tyson graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in English. She attended Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I., receiving her commission in the U.S. Navy in December of that year. Tyson reported for flight training in Pensacola, Fla., after serving a brief tour ashore in Washington. She earned her wings as a naval flight officer in 1983. She served three tours in Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron (VQ) 4 at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md., and Tinker Air Force Base, in Oklahoma, including one as commanding officer. She also commanded the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5), leading the Navy's contributions to disaster relief efforts on the U.S. Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and deploying twice to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Other tours at sea included duty as assistant operations officer aboard the training aircraft carrier, USS Lexington (AVT 16), and as navigator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65). Ashore, she served as Airborne Communications Officer Course instructor and officer in charge at Naval Air Maintenance Training Detachment 1079, NAS Patuxent River, Md. She has also completed tours on the Joint Staff as a political-military planner in the Asia-Pacific Division of the Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate; as executive assistant for the assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; as director of staff for commander, Naval Forces Europe/commander 6th Fleet, and as executive assistant for the Chief of Naval Operations. Her most recent assignment was as commander, Logistics Group, Western Pacific/commander, Task Force 73. Tyson earned a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Affairs from the U.S. Naval War College in 1995.

The flagship of Carrier Strike Group Two is the USS George HW Bush , which returned from a 7-month deployment on 10 Dec 2011 to the cheers and tears of family and friends worldwide, thanks to LiveStream, which allowed those unable to attend the homecomeing in person to watch from computers. Prior to World War I, women in the Navy were usually nurses. The Naval Reserve Act of 1916 allowed the first femail sailors who served in clerical positions in addition to nursing and pharmaceutical positions. They also served as photographers, radio operators, torpedo assemblers and a variety of other positions. All of these positions were abandoned by the women at the end of the war when they were released from active duty. WAVES, Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service was the women's auxiliary generated by the need for additional personnel during World War II. The trend of having women in the Navy primarily during war times continued until the early 1970s. Women began flying for the Navy and were finally allowed to advance as commissioned officers. The Department of the Navy announced authorization of a policy change allowing women to begin serving onboard Navy submarines in mid-2010. Rear Admiral Tyson, I applaud your accomplishments.

Welcome home Sailors of the "USS George HW Bush"!

Today, nearly 6,000 members of the United States Navy who have been deployed on the USS George H W Bush for the past seven months have come to their home port in Norfolk, Virginia.


Hampton Roads Pilot Online's Mike Hixenbaugh reports:

Nearly 6,000 sailors returned home to Norfolk Naval Station today to cheers and hugs after a seven-month deployment to the Middle East. People began gathering pierside before 6 a.m., hours ahead of the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush's arrival. "I thought if we came out here, time would go by faster," said Julie Martin as she waited for her husband. People jumped and cheered as the ship appeared at the horizon. Pam Moore wiped a tear from her eyes. Moore and her family had flown in from Texas to welcome her son home. "I'm so proud of him." Patriotic music blared as the ship approached. Petty Officer Derrick Chavez was among the first sailors off the ship. He smiled as he hugged his wife and held his 6-month-old daughter for the first time."I'm speechless," he said. Loved ones hoisted each other on their shoulders and waved signs as the sailors filed onto the pier. Airman Robert Frary found his girlfriend and immediately dropped to a knee and held out a ring. She jumped into his arms and screamed, "yes!" "We've got a lot to celebrate," he said. The arrivals include four ships as part of the group: the aircraft carrier Bush, the guided-missile destroyers Truxtun and Mitscher and the cruiser Anzio. They left Hampton Roads in May. The deployment was the first for the Bush, skippered by Capt. Brian Luther. It also marked the first time that a woman, Rear Adm. Nora Tyson, commanded a carrier strike group. The ships and nine squadrons of aircraft that make up Carrier Air Wing Eight supported U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and conducted security operations in the Mediterranean and Arabian seas. The air wing returned home earlier this week.

The Navy made LiveStream available through several outlets, including Facebook so that family and friends who could not attend the homecoming in person could still "be there" sort of. Pre-recorded earlier today:

Watch live streaming video from usnavy at livestream.com

Scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST and run until 1 p.m. with chat options in LiveStream, Facebook and Twitter, it promised to be a fully interactive experience, but some people voiced great disappointment in the execution.

I spent hours last night tweeting and sending the link to family and friends and slept like a child on Christmas Eve.

I woke early and paced, waiting until it was time to view the feed. I expected a few glitches and yet, knowing the technology that is available to our Navy, I also expected state-of-the art video that I hoped would blow my mind.

Instead, I found a black screen for 19 minutes, a day-old slide show for 18 minutes and about 3 seconds of live feed that showed the ship already moored, sailors standing at attention in their dress blues around the ship. I'd missed the grandeur of watching the tugboat help maneuver the massive ship to port.

I maintained vigilance and waited three hours to see if I might see my own sailor. I did see small clips of happy reunions. Meanwhile I tried to engage in the three chats available but mostly found others complaining about the LiveStream feed.

I have to agree: a military as mighty as ours, a Navy capable of creating remote control drones and a country capable of sending manned spacecraft to the moon and the International Space Station should be able to provide a fully functional video on LiveStream, right?

There were some people who expressed the same opinion I had - that of gratitude. We were grateful to know that the Navy cared enough about the sailors' families and friends to offer an option to flying or driving to Norfolk or waiting for the news releases. Thank you!

Others voiced frustration that the feed wasn't better. I was frustrated, too. One thing the feed did provide was enough audio for me to recognize when disembarkation had begun and when it was almost over. That afforded me with a window in which to call my sailor, who was still working on board the ship. We had a brief moment for me to say, "Welcome home!"

Despite the glitches and the comments over how skillful the camera person was (or wasn't) and despite the moments of blackout and the 15-minute early timeout, I have to say Bravo Zulu to those who made the effort to make the LiveStream possible.Hopefully skill and technology will merge for the next homecoming.