Us-navy-captain-thomas-g-otterbein-first-commanding-officer-of-cvn75

Thomas G. Otterbein is a retired

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. A naval

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

, he held important aviation-related commands both at sea and on shore, including a stint as Executive Officer and acting Commanding Officer of the

Navy Fighter Weapons School The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as Top Gun (stylized as TOPGUN), teaches fighter and strike tactics and techniques to selected naval aviators and naval flight officers, wh ...

(TOPGUN).

Early life and career

Otterbein was born in

Bad Axe, Michigan Bad Axe is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Huron County, Michigan, Huron County in the Thumb region of the Lower Peninsula. The population was 3,129 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, making it the largest co ...

. He entered the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

and graduated in 1970. After receiving his commission, he completed flight training and was designated a Naval Aviator in 1973. His first operational tour was with

VF-111 Fighter Squadron 111 (VF-111), also known as the ''Sundowners'', was a fighter squadron of the United States Navy. Originally established as Fighter Squadron 11 (VF-11) on 10 October 1942, it was redesignated as VF-11A on 15 November 1946, redesign ...

flying the

F-4 Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber originally developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bow ...

, where he made deployments to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

and western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

aboard USS ''Franklin D. Roosevelt'' and USS ''Kitty Hawk'' respectively. Upon completion of

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

training, his next sea tour was with Fighter Squadron 51, where he made an around the world cruise aboard USS ''Carl Vinson''. In recognition of his superior aeronautical skills and leadership abilities, Captain Otterbein was selected for

F/A-18 The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part ...

Hornet training and subsequently became the Executive Officer of Fighter Squadron 161 aboard USS ''Midway''. Following that tour, he was the Executive Officer of Fighter Squadron 195 and had command of that squadron for eighteen months. Captain Otterbein successfully completed Nuclear Power Training and was soon back in the fleet, serving as Executive Officer of USS ''Theodore Roosevelt''. He subsequently assumed command of USS ''Nashville'' and led the ship through Operations Support/Uphold Democracy in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

, earning the

Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal The Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (AFEM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces, which was first created in 1961 by Executive Order of President John Kennedy. The medal is awarded to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who, after ...

and Battle "E" award. The crowning achievement of his career came when he reported as Commanding Officer, USS ''Harry S. Truman''.

Retirement

Thomas Otterbein worked ten years for

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

and

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

Corporation providing navigation equipment and software for military and commercial use. Otterbein currently resides in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

References

External links

Captain Thomas G. Otterbein during the CVN-75 commissioning

Tribute To Captain Thomas G. Otterbein, USN -- Hon. Ike Skelton (extensions Of Remarks - October 20, 1999)
Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Bad Axe, Michigan United States Naval Aviators United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers Military personnel from Michigan {{US-navy-bio-stub