The commander of U.S. 2nd Fleet shifted his flag from the amphibious assault ship USS USS Bataan (LHD 5) to his new flagship, USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7), in a ceremony at Pier 10 on Naval Station Norfolk April 27.
Vice Adm. Mel Williams Jr.'s three-starred flag was hauled down on board Bataan, which has served as the 2nd Fleet flagship since July 2008.
During Bataan's tenure as U.S. 2nd Fleet's flagship, the staff embarked the ship on two occasions, during Joint Task Force Exercise 08-4 in July 2008 to direct ready-for-deployment certification events for the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TR CSG) and the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (IWO ESG), and during the Eisenhower CSG's Composite Unit Training Exercise in January 2009.
Additionally, 2nd Fleet ordered Bataan to get underway in September 2008 to demonstrate at-sea readiness during the active hurricane season.
During the ceremony, Williams praised the crew of Bataan for their accomplishments, and thanked them for their hard work.
"You've displayed outstanding pride and professionalism," said Williams, "from the engineers who work in the plants, to the crew who work on the flight deck, to the fantail watchstanders to the crew on the mess decks."
Williams' flag was then raised on Iwo Jima, which returned from deployment to the 5th and 6th Fleet Areas of Operation as part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Readiness Group (IWO ARG) March 27.
"Although day to day, the Second Fleet staff performs operational level command and control ashore from its Maritime Operations Center," said Williams, "there is also an operational imperative for the headquarters staff to be responsive at sea. The designated Second Fleet flagship supports this mission need."
The practice of naval commanders choosing a flagship, from which to command their fleet, from among the ships at their disposal is a tradition that dates back to the days of sail. More recently, paragraph 312 of the 1909 version of the U.S. Navy regulations directed that the fleet commander "shall select one of the heaviest and most powerful vessels of his command as his permanent flagship and may, at his discretion, shift his flag temporarily to any other ship under his command."
USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), considered by some to be the most sophisticated command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence (C4I) ship ever commissioned, served as 2nd Fleet's flagship from 1981 until 2002, when the staff disembarked to allow the ship to the deploy to the Horn of Africa region in support of the global war on terrorism.
Since that time, Norfolk-based amphibious assault ships have served as the 2nd Fleet flagship on a rotating basis.