31 NAVAL STATION EVERETT, Wash. – Rear Adm. Christopher J. Sweeney relieved Rear Adm. James A. Kirk as Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 11, during a ceremony held at Naval Station Everett, April 30. Kirk, from Hershey, Pennsylvania, assumed command of CSG-11 in May 2020. He is a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has attended both the U.S. Naval War College and U.S. Army War College graduating with a master’s degree in National Security Studies. He has served in a variety of afloat and ashore billets as a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO). While under Kirk’s command, CSG-11 operated in U.S. 5th Fleet in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, part of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission. In September 2020, the strike group began operations in the Arabian Gulf, conducting the first aircraft carrier Strait of Hormuz transit in nearly a year. CSG-11 also supported Operation Inherent Resolve, providing close air support and defensive counter-air missions to the coalition fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and to Joint Task Force – Quartz and Operation Octave Quartz during a repositioning of U.S. forces within East Africa, transiting to the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia in December 2020.