Commerce Secretary Assigns New Director For NOAA Corps and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations
October 2, 2007
Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez has assigned Rear Adm. Jonathan Bailey, NOAA, as director of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps and NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. This action follows the recent Senate confirmation of Bailey to the rank of rear admiral. Bailey will relieve Rear Adm. Samuel P. De Bow Jr., in a formal ceremony on October 5 at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
As director of the NOAA Corps and the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, Bailey will have overall responsibility for the uniformed and civilian personnel within OMAO plus the fleet of research/survey ships and aircraft that support NOAA’s mission. NOAA Corps officers operate and manage the active fleet of 19 vessels and 12 aircraft as well as shore-side assignments. Civilian personnel also play a vital role aboard NOAA platforms, in NOAA’s Pacific and Atlantic Marine Operations Centers, NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center and at OMAO headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.
“Rear Adm. Bailey’s service aboard our vessels and aircraft has given him an extraordinary breadth of operational experience,” said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “He also excelled as director of NOAA’s Commissioned Personnel Center and most recently as executive director to the deputy under secretary for oceans and atmosphere - making him highly qualified to serve the nation in this critical position.”
A commissioned officer for nearly 28 years, Bailey has accumulated seven years of sea duty aboard five NOAA ships, as well as almost nine years as an aviator flying NOAA aircraft. Bailey has played a critical role in developing innovative strategies to improve the NOAA Corps workforce including; new officer evaluation and billet systems, deployment of technological improvements, and new training to educate officers and supervisors about NOAA Corps policies. In 2002, he received the Commerce Gold Medal for his technical skill and coordination efforts during the mapping of the World Trade Center and Pentagon following the September 11, 2001 attacks. At the time, he was serving as director of the remote sensing division of NOAA’s National Ocean Service.
Bailey is a native of Buffalo, N.Y., and his parents still live in western New York. He obtained an associate degree in fisheries and marine technology and a bachelor’s degree in natural resources from the University of Rhode Island in 1979 and his master’s degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1998. Bailey resides with his wife and three sons in Derwood, Md.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.