Stuart P. Baker

Stuart P. Baker is a retired United States Navy officer, holding the rank of rear admiral.

Early life and education Baker is a native of La Crosse, Wisconsin; graduated in 1989 from Miami University in Ohio with a Bachelor of Science in Paper Science and Engineering; and received his commission via the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps.

Baker's assignments ashore have included being stationed with Strike Fighter Weapons School Pacific, the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center as executive officer of the TOPGUN program and United States Fleet Forces Command.

In 2020, Baker was the commanding officer of Carrier Strike Group 9, deployed in the Pacific; he was stationed aboard the aircraft carrier , the flagship of the strike group, which consists of the Theodore Roosevelt and seven other ships. The Theodore Roosevelt departed from its Naval Base San Diego home port in mid-January, with more than 6,000 sailors on board, for a seven-month deployment in the Western Pacific (Indo-Pacific Command) region. A few days later Crozier was relieved of command by Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly, who blamed Crozier for sending his memorandum over "non-secure unclassified email" to a "broad array of people" and accused Crozier of having "unnecessarily raised the alarm" about the virus. The day after Crozier's letter became public, the Navy began to evacuate the ship. By 13 April 585 crew members had tested positive for the disease and one had died. A Navy inquiry, whose results were announced on 19 June, concluded that Crozier and Baker made poor decisions regarding the coronavirus outbreak, so that Baker's scheduled promotion to two-star admiral will be put on hold.