{"id":117677,"date":"2018-08-16T12:41:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T16:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=117677"},"modified":"2023-11-08T18:18:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T23:18:03","slug":"meet-navy-capt-j-j-cummings-89-commander-of-the-worlds-largest-aircraft-carrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2018\/08\/16\/meet-navy-capt-j-j-cummings-89-commander-of-the-worlds-largest-aircraft-carrier\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Navy Capt. J.J. Cummings &#8217;89, commander of the world&#8217;s largest aircraft carrier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, in a story chronicling life aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier, a <em>New Yorker<\/em> writer noted that the scope and scale of the captain\u2019s job made it \u201cimpossible to get a sense of him outside his captainness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Navy Capt. J.J. Cummings \u201989 has commanded the USS<i> Gerald R. Ford<\/i> for only a few days, he shows no signs of letting the captainness overshadow his J.J.-ness.<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, during the change of command ceremony at Virginia\u2019s Naval Station Norfolk, Cummings broke up the audience with a joke that cleverly spoke to who he is and where he comes from.<\/p>\n<p>With a pronounced accent signaling his Boston-area upbringing, Cummings offered thanks to the Navy leadership for the \u201cgreat wisdom or amazing sense of humor to send a guy with a Boston accent to a ship with three R\u2019s in the title.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s J.J.,\u201d said Matt Schechter \u201989, among more than two dozen Bates friends who attended the event. The person they saw at the lectern is the same guy his friends knew back at Bates. \u201cHis genuineness and authenticity came through big time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em style=\"color: #009779;\">Navy Capt. J.J. Cummings &#8217;89 jokes about his Boston-area accent during the change of command ceremony on Aug. 10. (U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kristopher Ruiz)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"J.J. Cummings \u201989 change of command: Three R\u2019s\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2RFW1eZNqUw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So there it is: The U.S. has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and a Bates grad commands one of them. And it\u2019s not just \u201cone of them\u201d: the <i>Ford <\/i>is the Navy\u2019s newest, the world\u2019s largest, and the first of its class.<\/p>\n<p>The Navy selects and grooms future carrier captains from the ranks of its carrier aviators, and in that way, Cummings\u2019 path to the <i>Ford<\/i> is typical. A fighter pilot, he earned his wings in 1993 and has totaled 3,850 flight hours and 704 carrier landings.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s distinctive about Cummings\u2019 career is how and where it started. The Navy has 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and their captains are often graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy or attended a university and earned their commission as officers through Navy ROTC.<\/p>\n<p>Which means that the schools of the NESCAC aren&#8217;t exactly feeders for carrier command. Yet Cummings got his start in the Navy as an enlisted sailor when he was a Bates student, back in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>At Bates, he knew that a pre-professional track like law or medicine wasn\u2019t for him. \u201cI wanted something different and exciting,\u201d he recalls. \u201cA challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He visited a recruiter and expressed interest in being a naval aviator. The recruiter offered sound advice: Cummings should first join the Navy Reserve, which might improve his chances of someday being selected for aviation officer training.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said it would make my package that much more impressive,\u201d Cummings recalls.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_117685\" style=\"width: 1929px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810_Cummings_4636362.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117685\" class=\"size-full wp-image-117685\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810_Cummings_4636362.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810_Cummings_4636362.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810_Cummings_4636362-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810_Cummings_4636362-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810_Cummings_4636362-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-117685\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">J.J. Cummings &#8217;89 (right) assumes command of the USS <em>Gerald R. Ford<\/em> from Capt. Richard C. McCormack during the Aug. 10 change of command ceremony, a time-honored Naval transfer of responsibility, authority, and accountability from one individual to another. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Cat Campbell)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He enlisted in 1986, after his first year, and did basic training in Great Lakes, Ill., during the winter semester of his sophomore year, then became a hospital corpsman attached to a Marine Reserve company in Topsham.<\/p>\n<p>The strategy worked. In 1990, about to ship out to the Gulf War with his company, he learned that he\u2019d been accepted to Aviation Officers Candidate School. Among 300 eligible candidates in the New England area, only Cummings was chosen.<\/p>\n<p>Being the captain of an aircraft carrier is one of those jobs that really is as huge as it sounds: It\u2019s considered \u201cthe pinnacle of \u2018major command\u2019 for the Navy,\u201d explains John Garofano \u201982, professor of strategy and policy and former academic dean at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.<\/p>\n<p>And the <i>Ford<\/i> is literally in a class of its own, the first carrier of a brand-new design. \u201cIt has a number of brand new high-tech systems, from propulsion to aircraft launch and recovery,\u201d Garofano says.<\/p>\n<p>The carrier is the largest in the world. At 1,092 feet long, it\u2019s longer than all of Alumni Walk, from College Street to Commons. When deployed with its nine aircraft squadrons, the ship will have a crew of 4,550.<\/p>\n<p>Cummings has thought about his captainness, and whether his leadership ability is natural or trained. He\u2019s not sure that being a naval aviator <em>made<\/em> him a leader. \u201cBut you do become more confident in making decisions. You become very decisive when you\u2019re going 500 miles an hour and dropping bombs.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_117688\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/J.J.-CUMMINGS-89-Ford-captain-portrait-crop.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117688\" class=\"wp-image-117688 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/J.J.-CUMMINGS-89-Ford-captain-portrait-crop-900x720.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/J.J.-CUMMINGS-89-Ford-captain-portrait-crop-900x720.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/J.J.-CUMMINGS-89-Ford-captain-portrait-crop-375x300.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/J.J.-CUMMINGS-89-Ford-captain-portrait-crop-200x160.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/J.J.-CUMMINGS-89-Ford-captain-portrait-crop.jpg 1919w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-117688\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">J.J. Cummings &#8217;89 poses for his official command portrait in July 2018. (Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jonathan Pankau)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On or off a ship, inside and outside the Navy, there are good and bad leaders. \u201cWhat made me a better leader was watching both,\u201d he says. To Cummings\u2019 thinking, good leaders make it \u201cabout the team instead about themselves,\u201d he says, while \u201cpoor leaders are focused on their <i>next<\/i> job or promotion rather than thinking about this as their <i>last <\/i>job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cummings sometimes plays a game when he attends change of command ceremonies: How many times does the commander say \u201cI\u201d or \u201cme\u201d instead of \u201cwe,\u201d \u201cour,\u201d or \u201cus\u201d? \u201cSometimes the ratio isn\u2019t too good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a ship captain, Cummings says he \u201ctries to make a positive influence one sailor at a time. I want just to listen. I love those moments of raw feedback.\u201d By dint of an outgoing personality and his own sense of purpose, Cummings is all about LBWA \u2014 Leadership By Walking Around. \u201cI\u2019m a huge proponent for that, and I work hard to get away from my desk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been that way since his early days as a commissioned officer. He asked his first chief petty officer (a senior enlisted officer who acts as a liaison between enlisted sailors and commissioned officers) for advice. \u201cI\u2019ll keep it simple,\u201d the CPO told Cummings. \u201cShow \u2019em you care. Don\u2019t <i>tell<\/i> them. <i>Show<\/i> them. If you do that, they will respect you as a man and officer. I\u2019ve never forgotten that.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Cummings &#8217;89 thanks his Bates friends for attending the change of command ceremony on Aug. 10. (U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kristopher Ruiz)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"J.J. Cummings \u201889 change of command: Thanks\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vRF-BEqhyJE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA social focus is such an important part of this job: to engage with people,\u201d he says. And that goes back to Bates. \u201cI was not a great academic student at Bates, and I regret that. But I don\u2019t regret the relationships I made, and it was an honor to have so many Bates friends come to the ceremony to see what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The most important relationship that J.J. made at Bates was with Sara Hagan \u201989; they were married in 1994 and have three children. \u201cI knew a thousand years ago that I wanted to marry her,\u201d he says. \u201cI would not be in the Navy except for her; she can manage the insanity\u201d of Navy family life, with long deployments and frequent moves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBates is about people. And when I was at Bates, it was being with people that drove me. And in the Navy, when I did not have flying jobs, what I missed was the people, really fantastic young men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_117684\" style=\"width: 1929px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810-N-WC455-0110-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117684\" class=\"wp-image-117684 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810-N-WC455-0110-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810-N-WC455-0110-copy.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810-N-WC455-0110-copy-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810-N-WC455-0110-copy-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/180810-N-WC455-0110-copy-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-117684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;It was an honor to have so many Bates friends come to the ceremony to see what I do,&#8221; said J.J. Cummings &#8217;89. The friends pose for a photo after the command ceremony on Aug. 10 at Naval Station Norfolk. From left, Megan Falk Pickette &#8217;91, Jim Pickette &#8217;89, Marnie Patterson Cochran &#8217;90, Helen Previdi &#8217;89, Stu Titus &#8217;91, Dave Cogliano &#8217;89, Paul Guenette &#8217;89, Bill Whalen &#8217;89, Todd Murphy &#8217;89, Sara Hagan Cummings &#8217;89, J.J. Cummings &#8217;89, Langley Gace &#8217;89, Tim Donovan &#8217;89, James Ash &#8217;90, Matt Schecter &#8217;89, and Craig Geikie &#8217;89. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Joshua Murray)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Following sea trials in 2017 and early 2018, the <i>Ford<\/i> is now at Huntington Ingalls Newport News shipyard for a year-long scheduled maintenance period known as &#8220;post-shakedown availability.&#8221; Which means that Cummings\u2019 likely two-and-a-half year command will focus on getting the ship ready for its deployment, including repairs at the shipyard and then more sea trials. He won\u2019t be the captain when the <i>Ford<\/i> has its first deployment at sea far, far away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut that\u2019s OK,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll bring <i>Ford<\/i> to the goal line and hand her off, first and goal, to our brothers and sisters, ready to do our nation\u2019s bidding and be dominant on the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a leader, he has the tricky task of ensuring that his sailors bring great focus to what is a long-term goal. \u201cI have to think long-term \u2014 be at the 25,000-foot level \u2014 then get into the weeds with the sailors. My question will always be, \u2018How will what we do contribute to combat readiness?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garofano suggests that the Navy may have chosen Cummings for the <i>Ford<\/i> with his personality and leadership style in mind. \u201cHe\u2019s the third commanding officer. The first was the CO during construction, the second during shakedowns, and he will be taking it to or close to full operational status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means that he was probably selected not just for basic leadership abilities, but because it was believed that he could handle more than the normal uncertainty and risk of command.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_117683\" style=\"width: 1929px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/M3X7AW.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117683\" class=\"size-full wp-image-117683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/M3X7AW.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/M3X7AW.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/M3X7AW-400x237.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/M3X7AW-900x533.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/M3X7AW-200x118.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-117683\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In 2014, when he was executive officer of the USS <em>Nimitz<\/em> aircraft carrier, J.J. Cummings &#8217;89 (blue shirt) and Devin Wray, a mass communication specialist, take part in a 5-kilometer run on the carrier&#8217;s flight deck. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Eric M. Butler)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He certainly has the experience for it. Like other aviators of his generation, Cummings gained his combat experience after 9\/11. That fateful morning, he was at home in Virginia with his family, getting ready for a scheduled deployment from Naval Air Station Oceana, when he saw Flight 175 hit the South Tower on TV.<\/p>\n<p>Deployed with the carrier USS <i>Theodore Roosevelt<\/i>, Cummings piloted the Navy&#8217;s storied F-14 Tomcat in extensive combat missions over Afghanistan. Some of it felt personal: On every mission, he carried a printout from the Bates website about the death of his friend Peter Goodrich \u201989, who died aboard Flight 175, \u201cone of the nicest guys I knew at Bates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leadership opportunities followed, and Cummings seized them, as executive and commanding officer of a fighter squadron aboard the USS <i>Harry S. Truman<\/i>. Shore assignments later in the 2000s, including stints with a strategic and logistics focus at NATO and at the U.S. Joint Forces Command, both based in Norfolk, created more forward motion for his career.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, he earned master\u2019s degrees at Old Dominion and the Naval War College, in education and national security and strategic studies, respectively.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be defending my C-plus from Bates in \u2018Electricity, Magnetism, and Waves\u2019 to a three-star admiral.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>By then it was clear that Cummings was a \u201chot runner\u201d \u2014 Navy parlance for someone advancing quickly along an incredibly competitive pipeline \u2014 and he was selected in 2010 for Navy Nuclear Power School, aka nuke school. There, he received advanced training to serve on a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, of which there are 11.<\/p>\n<p>Topics at nuke school, in Goose Creek, S.C., cover everything from nuclear physics to reactor dynamics; it\u2019s considered the most difficult academic curriculum in the U.S. military, and sailors typically spend about 45 hours a week in class.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s brutal,\u201d Cummings says.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s an old saying that your GPA never matters after your first job. But to be eligible for nuke school, Cummings, who majored in physics at Bates, had to dust off \u2014 and confront \u2014 his 1980s Bates transcript.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be defending my C-plus from Bates in \u2018Electricity, Magnetism, and Waves\u2019 to a three-star admiral,\u201d Cumming says. \u201cIt was like back home in Sharon, talking about my grades to my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He got selected (and he credits physics faculty members like Gene Clough and Mark Semon, both now retired, for their support).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_117738\" style=\"width: 1929px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/4630173-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117738\" class=\"wp-image-117738 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/4630173-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/4630173-1.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/4630173-1-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/4630173-1-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/08\/4630173-1-200x133.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-117738\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The USS <em>Gerald R. Ford<\/em> steams in the Atlantic Ocean on July 28, 2017, during test and evaluation operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ryan Litzenberger)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Cummings completed nuclear power training in 2012, then served as the executive officer of the carrier USS <i>Nimitz<\/i>, 2013\u201315, before commanding the USS <i>Anchorage<\/i>, an amphibious assault warship that transports Marines into a war zone.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-two years have passed since Cummings enlisted in the Navy. While his J.J.-ness is intact, as is his love for his job, what drives him as the captain of the <i>Ford<\/i> feels different, he says, from what propelled him to enlist at Bates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I enlisted at Bates, it was about <i>me<\/i>. Now, the feeling is about something greater than me. It\u2019s about others, the greater good, and serving our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. has 11 nuclear-powered carriers, and a Bates grad commands one of them: the USS <em>Gerald R. Ford<\/em>, the Navy\u2019s newest and the world\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":117685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,217,220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-science-technology","category-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117677"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158336,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117677\/revisions\/158336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}