Captain Fred Goldhammer

Commanding Officer, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76)

23 October 2020 Captain Fred Goldhammer, a native of New York City, was commissioned in 1993 after graduating from the United States Naval Academy with a degree in Mathematics.

Following initial training in Pensacola, Florida as a Naval Flight Officer, Captain Goldhammer was selected to fly the E-2C Hawkeye and reported to the VAW-125 “Tiger Tails” for his initial sea tour. Subsequent sea duty assignments include service with the VAW-123 “Screwtops” as a Department Head, and the VAW-117 “Wallbangers” as Executive and Commanding Officer. These tours spanned multiple deployments while embarked aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and USS Eisenhower (CVN 69).

Ashore, Captain Goldhammer served as a flight instructor with the VAW-120 “Greyhawks,” flight test lead for several E-2C avionics upgrades at VX-20, liaison officer to other Service components during several overseas contingency operations, and Federal Executive Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory. He also completed several Pentagon assignments, including the Joint Staff Strategic Plans and Policy (J-5) Directorate, DoD liaison to the National Counter Terrorism Center, and as Executive Assistant to the Director of Navy Staff.

Following Aviation Nuclear Propulsion training, Captain Goldhammer reported to USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) as Executive Officer in 2016, and commanded USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) from 2018 to 2019. He reported aboard USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) in September 2020.

Captain Goldhammer holds Masters Degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the Air Force Command and Staff College. A graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School, he has accumulated more than 3,000 flight hours and over 700 carrier landings in 27 different types of aircraft. His awards include the Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and Navy Meritorious Service Medal, among other personal and unit awards.