Carrier Strike Group 2

Carrier Strike Group 2 (CSG-2 or COMCARSTRKGRU 2) is a U.S. Navy carrier strike group, tracing its history originally to 1931. The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is the strike group's current flagship. As of Aug 2020, other units assigned to Carrier Strike Group 2 included the nine squadrons of Carrier Air Wing Three; the Ticonderoga-class cruisers USS Philippine Sea (CG-58); USS Monterey (CG-61), USS Vella Gulf (CG-72) and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Mitscher (DDG-57), USS Laboon (DDG 58), USS Mahan (DDG-72), and USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116) from Destroyer Squadron 22.

The group traces its history to the creation of Carrier Division 2 on 1 April 1931. The group took its current form on 1 October 2004. On 29 July 2010, Rear Admiral Nora W. Tyson assumed command of the group, becoming the first woman to command a U.S. Navy carrier task group. The group's 2011 Mediterranean deployment marked the maiden deployment for the carrier USS George H.W. Bush and the guided-missile destroyer Truxtun. The group's units were the first U.S. naval forces to participate in Operation Inherent Resolve, the 2014 U.S.-led multi-lateral air campaign against the Islamic State group.

On 1 April 1931, Rear Admiral Joseph M. Reeves took command of Carrier Division 2 (CarDiv 2), becoming the first carrier division commander in the U.S. Navy. Reeves was also designated as Commander Aircraft U.S. Fleet. Carrier Division 2 initially consisted of the U.S. Navy's first true fast aircraft carriers, Lexington and Saratoga, as well as former minesweeper Gannet which acted as an aircraft tender and guardship for the two carriers. Under Reeves' leadership, both carriers had previously distinguished themselves in two major naval exercises, the 1929 Fleet Problem IX and the 1930 Fleet Problem X, demonstrating the potential of aircraft carriers and their embarked air groups in naval offensive operations. Aircraft carriers from Carrier Division 2 became the first to embark U.S. Marine Corps aviation units when, on 2 November 1931, squadron VS-14M joined the Saratoga and squadron VS-15M joined the Lexington.

In 1933, Saratoga and Langley were assigned to Carrier Division 2, which was under the Commander Aircraft, Battle Force, while Lexington was reassigned to Carrier Division One under Commander Aircraft, Scouting Force. In February 1939, Carrier Division Two, now consisting of Yorktown and Enterprise, participated in the war game Fleet Problem XX. The scenario for the exercise called for one fleet to control the sea lanes in the Caribbean against the incursion of a foreign European power while maintaining sufficient naval strength to protect vital American interests in the Pacific. In December 1941, on the eve of the United States' entry into the Second World War, Carrier Division Two was under the command of Vice Admiral William Halsey Jr., who was also the Commander Aircraft Battle Force in the Pacific Ocean.

During the Second World War, aircraft carriers assigned to Carrier Division Two participated in the Doolittle Raid, the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Operation Hailstone, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, as well as the Solomon Islands campaign, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, the Hollandia and Western New Guinea campaign, the Philippines Campaign, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the Iwo Jima campaign, and the Okinawan campaign, as part of the Navy's Fast Carrier Task Force. Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman commanded the division in 1943 while it was operating with the Fast Carrier Task Force.

On 1 August 1955 the division was made up of USS Bennington (Newport) and USS Lake Champlain (flagship) at Mayport. Ranger sailed as the flagship of Rear Admiral H. H. Caldwell, Commander, Carrier Division 2, from Hawaii to join the Seventh Fleet in February 1959. Air operations off Okinawa were followed by maneuvers with naval units from U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay. A special weapons warfare exercise and a patrol along the southern seaboard of Japan followed. During this deployment, Ranger launched more than 7,000 sorties.

After the war, division aircraft carriers were involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. USS Enterprise flew the flag of Commander Carrier Division 2 in 1963. Rear Admiral Bernard M. Strean, as division commander, led Enterprise, Long Beach, and Bainbridge around the world in Operation Sea Orbit from July to October 1964. 'Sea Orbit' was a successful test of the first all-nuclear-powered task force. On 25 September 1965, Rear Admiral J. O. Cobb broke his flag as Commander, Carrier Division 2, aboard USS America. The division was re-designated as Commander Carrier Group 2 (ComCarGru 2) in 1973.

In 1986, while commanding Carrier Group Two, Rear Admiral Jerry C. Breast commanded the Coral Sea carrier battle group and Task Group 60.1 of the U.S. Sixth Fleet during a series of naval maneuvers code-named Attain Document. These naval maneuvers were intended to assert the freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Sidra as well as to challenge the territorial claims of Libya to that body of water. Subsequently, the Coral Sea carrier battle group and the rest of Task Force 60 carried out Operation El Dorado Canyon, a series of punitive air-strikes against Libya in retaliations to the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing.