This Navy helicopter pilot has been chosen to be the first woman to command a US aircraft carrier

• For the first time in its history, the US Navy has chosen a woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Task & Purpose first reported.
• Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt will become the commanding officer of a carrier in fiscal year 2022, Naval Air Forces told Insider, though it is unclear which carrier she will lead.
• Bauernschmidt previously made history by becoming the first woman to be selected as an executive officer aboard a carrier.

A woman has been chosen to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier for the first time in the history of the US Navy.

Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, a career helicopter pilot, has been selected to become the commanding officer of a carrier in fiscal year 2022, though it is unclear which of the Navy's 11 carriers she will command, Naval Air Forces told Insider Monday.

Task & Purpose was first to report Bauernschmidt's historic achievement.

Bauernschmidt graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1994, the same year Congress changed the law to allow women to serve aboard combat vessels.

In an interview with CBS News in 2018, she said that the law changed her life.

"We were the first class that graduated knowing and feeling honored with the privilege to be able to go serve along the rest of our comrades in combat," she said.

After earning her wings two years out of the academy, she joined Helicopter Anti-submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 45, also known as "Wolfpack," and deployed aboard the destroyer USS John Young, supporting maritime interdiction operations.

Later, she was picked to command Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 70, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush.

Over the course of her trailblazing career, which also involved serving as an instructor pilot among other things, Bauernschmidt has racked up more than 3,000 flight hours in Navy aircraft, according to her official Navy biography.

Her recent selection to command an aircraft carrier is not the first time she has made Navy history. Bauernschmidt is also the first woman to have served as an executive officer aboard a carrier. She was second-in-command of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Talking to CBS about the XO position in 2018, she said that she didn't think too much about it, explaining that "it's easier to just get in and do the work."

Thinking a little more about it in the interview, she said: "I hope that I'm a good leader and a mentor to both men and women in the service."

CBS reported at the time that she was moving into a role that would eventually put her in line to command her own carrier.

Bauernschmidt most recently served as the commanding officer of the amphibious transport dock USS San Diego.