{"id":33125,"date":"2018-08-10T19:18:39","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T19:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/10\/hail-and-farewell-carrier-ford-changes-command\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:28:42","slug":"hail-and-farewell-carrier-ford-changes-command","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/08\/10\/hail-and-farewell-carrier-ford-changes-command\/","title":{"rendered":"Hail and farewell: Carrier Ford changes command"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The world\u2019s most expensive aircraft carrier welcomed its third skipper on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Friday\u2019s change of command ceremony didn\u2019t take place on the deck of the $12.9 billion flattop. That\u2019s because the Gerald Ford is undergoing maintenance for the next year at Huntington Ingall\u2019s Newport News shipyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead the carrier\u2019s crew said farewell to Capt. Richard C. \u201cRed Dog\u201d McCormack from inside Norfolk\u2019s Vista Point Catering and Conference Center, where he relinquished command of the most technologically advanced flattop ever sailed by the Navy to Capt. John J. \u201cYank\u201d Cummings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cummings will preside over a first-in-class carrier undergoing extensive work designed to fix the glitches that have dogged the carrier since it was commissioned on July 22, 2017, and began its shakedown cruise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The list includes propulsion problems and software bugs but the Ford is slated to return to sea in late 2019 and the Pentagon believes it will deploy overseas three years after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/05\/23\/why-the-navys-newest-aircraft-carrier-was-forced-back-into-port\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/USS_Ford_1200.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Why the Navy\u2019s newest aircraft carrier was forced back into port<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Navy&#039;s newest aircraft carrier, the first-in-class Gerald R. Ford, made an unexpected return to port May 22 during an underway testing period.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe shakedown period was an opportunity for the Navy to run the ship through a rigorous set of operational tasks and assess her performance,&#8221; McCormack told Navy Times in an interview. \u201cWe now enter a post-shakedown availability period to incorporate several design changes to correct performance deficiencies and complete the installation of other systems needed to ensure the ship, her embarked air wing and the strike group are ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McCormack\u2019s crew spent 81 days at sea testing the Ford, the newest class of American carriers in four decades. One of their most rewarding moments came when they discovered that the shipboard Electromagnetic Aircraft Launching System \u2014 called \u201cEMALS\u201d \u2014 and its companion Advanced Arresting Gear worked well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"873\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC_2205.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-64338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC_2205.jpg.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC_2205.jpg.jpg?resize=300,218 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC_2205.jpg.jpg?resize=768,559 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC_2205.jpg.jpg?resize=1024,745 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Capt. Richard C. &#8220;Red Dog&#8221; McCormack, who led the carrier Ford to sea for the first time on the ship&#8217;s bridge. (photo by Mark D. Faram\/Navy Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The electronic EMALs had drawn the ire of President Donald Trump, who decried the system as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2017\/09\/29\/trump-again-bashes-emals-technology\/\" target=_blank>an example of military waste<\/a>. He voiced his support for the old-fashioned steam-driven catapults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although commanders planned on only 400 launches and arrested aircraft landings during the Ford\u2019s maiden year of operations, EMALs worked so well that they pushed testing far higher. The crew tallied 747 launches and recoveries, seven of them made by McCormack himself, a career F\/A-18 Hornet strike fighter pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s shows your crew that you have confidence in them and in the equipment to have them shoot you off the bow and bring you back aboard from the stern,\u201d said McCormack, a California native who also served as a test pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He has orders to become chief of staff for Naval Air Forces, Atlantic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSure, there\u2019s a little disappointment about not going on deployment in this job because at heart, we\u2019re all operators and we want to be on the tip of the spear,\u201d McCormack said. \u201cBut there\u2019s also a lot of pride in having been part of an organization that built, tested, shook down and developed the first totally new class of aircraft carrier in the past 40 years, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/2017\/08\/03\/the-carrier-fords-first-flight-ops\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"185\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IL72KN675NC5NJFQPQELNW33CY.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The carrier Ford&#8217;s first flight ops<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Pilot of historic first says it &quot;felt different.&quot;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Originally from Massachusetts, Cummings takes the helm of the Ford after leading the \u201cRed Rippers\u201d of Strike Fighter Squadron 11 and skippering the landing platform dock Anchorage. He also served as the executive officer of the aircraft carrier Nimitz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like McCormack, he realizes that he probably won\u2019t take the Ford out on an overseas tour. But he\u2019s fine with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGoing on cruise is easy \u2014 really the schedule is set for you the crew is trained and ready to go and you head out for nine months prepared for anything you might face \u2014 frankly that\u2019s easy,&#8221; said Cummings, a career F-14A Tomcat and FA-18F Super Hornet fighter pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is going to be a hard job, one of the hardest jobs I\u2019ve ever had because of all these challenges, some of which we know and others we may have not even identified, yet,. I\u2019ll tell you more in a year, but we\u2019re we\u2019re going to to take that challenge and focus on putting the these systems through their paces and tighten all the the screws and get this ship ready to deploy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gerald Ford&#8217;s landing system proved itself at sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":49070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,88,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3087],"class_list":["post-33125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HRU3AS4P3FCHLBVMQXXQJ4YDUM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/08\/10\/hail-and-farewell-carrier-ford-changes-command\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hail and farewell: Carrier Ford changes command - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Gerald Ford&#039;s landing system proved itself at sea.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hail and farewell: Carrier Ford changes command\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Gerald Ford&#039;s landing system proved itself at sea.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/08\/10\/hail-and-farewell-carrier-ford-changes-command\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-10T19:18:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T19:28:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark D. 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Faram\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/news\\\/your-navy\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/10\\\/hail-and-farewell-carrier-ford-changes-command\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/news\\\/your-navy\\\/2018\\\/08\\\/10\\\/hail-and-farewell-carrier-ford-changes-command\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/navytimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Hail 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