David M. Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Rear Admiral (upper half) David Thomas | |
| Born | 1958 (age 65–66) |
| Service/ |  United States Navy |
| Rank | Rear Admiral (upper half) |
| Commands held | JTF-GTMO Carrier Strike Group Two Naval Surface Forces Atlantic |
David M. Thomas (born 1958) [1] is a former senior officer in the United States Navy. [2]
Thomas's father was a career Navy officer. [3] Thomas, and three of his brothers, are graduates of the United States Naval Academy. All are retired, including one who was in the Marine Corps. Another brother served in the Peace Corps. His two uncles also were Navy officers via Officers' Candidate School programs. Thomas graduated in 1981.
Thomas was a 1976 graduate of Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School in Rockville, Maryland.
In 1999, Thomas commanded the destroyer USS Ross. [3] He has served aboard the USS Shreveport, USS Estocin, USS Willamette, and the USS Leyte Gulf
Captain David Thomas was serving in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers crashed a passenger jet into it, causing an explosion, fire, and consequent injuries and loss of life. [2] Thomas was one of the people who spontaneously volunteered to enter the damaged part of the building to rescue survivors.
When asked about his rescue efforts on September 11, Thomas replied:
I am who I am, a trained sailor who sails ships at sea. You run toward your shipmate in times of trouble.
His fire-damaged uniform now hangs in the Smithsonian's American History gallery. [2]
On May 27, 2008, Rear Admiral David Thomas replaced Rear Admiral Mark Buzby to become the 8th Commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. [2]
On April 2, 2009, Thomas defended inviting visiting VIP entertainers to view detainees at Guantanamo. [4] Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza and Miss USA 2008 Crystle Stewart had both been invited to visit Guantanamo on a USO tour, where they signed autographs. Both women stirred controversy after they published accounts of their visits. Thomas had authorized the women to view captives. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Carol Rosenberg, reporting in the Miami Herald , wrote that Thomas "brushed aside" concerns that by allowing civilians to view the captives he was violating the clause in the Geneva Conventions that protect captives from the humiliation of public display.
Thomas asserted that the beauty queens had been allowed to view the detainees in Guantanamo just as if they were reporters. [4]
On July 10, 2009, he began his assignment as commander, Carrier Strike Group 2, serving in that capacity until July, 2010. In July 2010, he was named Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic (COMNAVSURFLANT), the senior Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) in the Atlantic Fleet, a position he held until September 4, 2013. [10]
After he left the Navy Thomas was hired as an executive at BAE Systems Inc., a firm which builds and maintains large vessels, including US Navy vessels. [11] In 2018 he was put in charge of BAE's San Diego facility. [12]
Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) is a U.S. military joint task force based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on the southeastern end of the base. JTF-GTMO falls under US Southern Command. Since January 2002 the command has operated the Guantanamo Bay detention camps Camp X-Ray and its successors Camp Delta, Camp V, and Camp Echo, where detained prisoners are held who have been captured in the war in Afghanistan and elsewhere since the September 11, 2001 attacks. From the command's founding in 2002 to early 2022, the detainee population has been reduced from 779 to 37. As of October 21, 2022, the unit is under the command of U.S. Army Brigadier General Scott W. Hiipakka.
Rear Admiral Frederick Lois Riefkohl, a native of Maunabo, Puerto Rico, was an officer in the United States Navy and the first Puerto Rican to graduate from the United States Naval Academy and to be awarded the Navy Cross. The Navy Cross is the second highest medal, after the Medal of Honor, that can be awarded by the U.S. Navy for heroism or distinguished service. He was a World War I Navy Cross recipient who served as Captain of the USS Vincennes during World War II.
Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi was a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Al Hanashi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 78. The Department of Defense reports that Al Hanashi was born in February 1978, in Abyan, Yemen.
Kirk S. Lippold is a former U.S. Navy officer. He was the commanding officer of the United States Navy destroyer USS Cole on October 12, 2000, when the ship was attacked and bombed by al-Qaeda terrorists during a refueling stop in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors. Lippold assumed command of Cole on June 25, 1999, and served until he was relieved on March 9, 2001.
Mark Howard Buzby is a retired United States Navy rear admiral who served as the Administrator of the United States Maritime Administration. He retired from the Navy in 2013 and joined Carnival Cruise Line's Safety & Reliability Review Board. Buzby was nominated to be MARAD Administrator in June 2017 by President Donald Trump, and confirmed to the position by the United States Senate on August 3, 2017. He resigned from the post on January 11, 2021, along with Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, to protest the 2021 United States Capitol attack.
Hispanics in the United States Naval Academy account for the largest minority group in the institution. According to the academy, the Class of 2009 includes 271 (22.2%) minority midshipmen. Out of these 271 midshipmen, 115 are of Hispanic heritage. In 2004, of the total of 736 female midshipmen, 74 (10%) of them were of Hispanic descent.
Lewis Barton Combs was a United States Admiral who helped found and direct the famed "Seabees" construction battalions in World War II.
Bruce Edward MacDonald is a retired United States Navy vice admiral who last served as the 40th Judge Advocate General of the Navy from July 2006 to August 2009. Prior to that, MacDonald served as Deputy Judge Advocate General of the Navy from November 2004 to July 2006.
Hispanics in the United States Navy can trace their tradition of naval military service to men such as Lieutenant Jordi Farragut Mesquida, who served in the American Revolution. Hispanics, such as Seaman Philip Bazaar and Seaman John Ortega, have distinguished themselves in combat and have been awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration of the United States. Hispanics have also reached the top ranks of the navy, serving their country in sensitive leadership positions on domestic and foreign shores. Among those who have reached the highest ranks in the navy are Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy, of Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish descent, who participated in the War of 1812 as an assistant Sailing master; Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, for whom the rank of admiral in the U.S. Navy was created during the American Civil War; and Admiral Horacio Rivero, who led the navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Colonel James L. Pohl is an American lawyer and officer in the United States Army.
After the United States established the Guantanamo Bay detention camp at its naval base in Cuba, officials occasionally allowed Guantanamo captives' phone calls to their family. In 2008 the Joint Task Force Guantanamo that manages the camps developed rules regarding phone calls: all detainees who met certain conditions were allowed to make one call home per year.
Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist at The New York Times. Long a military-affairs reporter at the Miami Herald, from January 2002 into 2019 she reported on the operation of the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, at its naval base in Cuba. Her coverage of detention of captives at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp has been praised by her colleagues and legal scholars, and in 2010 she spoke about it by invitation at the National Press Club. Rosenberg had previously covered events in the Middle East. In 2011, she received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for her nearly decade of work on the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Jeffrey Harbeson is a retired United States Navy officer. He is notable for being denied a visa to visit Russia due to concerns his appointment as a commandant of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, the organization that runs the Guantanamo Bay detention camps required him to oversee human rights abuses. In June 2010 Rear Admiral Harbeson replaced Rear Admiral Thomas H. Copeman III.
Rear Admiral David B. Woods is an officer in the United States Navy. When Woods was a junior officer he served as a fighter pilot. When he became more senior he specialized in signals intelligence.
Norton C. Joerg is a lawyer and retired Rear Admiral in the United States Navy.
Francis John Higginson was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War and Spanish–American War. He rose to the rank of rear admiral and was the last commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Squadron and first commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Fleet.
Fernandez Lewis "Frank" Ponds is a former United States Navy officer from the U.S. state of Alabama. He is the former commanding officer of the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) and commanded the destroyer USS Fife (DD-991) in the early 2000s. He is also a former executive officer of the destroyer USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964).
Richard W. Butler is a retired aviator and officer in the United States Navy.
Yvette Marie Davids is a United States Navy vice admiral. She was the first Hispanic American woman to command a navy ship.
Stephen Thomas Koehler is a United States Navy admiral who serves as the commander of the United States Pacific Fleet. He previously served as the director for strategy, plans, and policy of the Joint Staff from 2022 to 2024 and as commander of the United States Third Fleet from 2021 to 2022.
Rear Adm. Pete A. Gumataotao relieved Rear. Adm. David M. Thomas, Jr. as Commander, Naval Surface Force Atlantic (SURFLANT) during a ceremony at the Naval Support Activity Norfolk chapel, Aug. 29.
In fact, since Thomas took command of the yard in 2014 (*Note: David M. Thomas, Jr., was recently named to lead BAE ship repair yard in San Diego after three years as Vice President & General Manager, Southeast Shipyards, Ship Repair, BAE Systems in Jacksonville), he credits a change in people skills as one of the leading changes at the yard during his tenure.
Eight months into his new assignment, Thomas said he isn't planning any changes in San Diego. However, there is evidence the yard will be dealing with a greater volume of work than it did under Thomas' predecessor.
Media related to David M. Thomas at Wikimedia Commons
This article incorporates public domain material from Rear Admiral David M. Thomas, Jr. United States Navy.