Navy Nominates Carrier Strike Group Commander Marks for Rear Admiral
Rear Adm. (lower half) Donald W. Marks, who leads Carrier Strike Group Nine in San Diego, was tapped for the two-star grade in a Department of War announcement.
The Navy nominated one of its Pacific carrier commanders for its two-star grade.
Donald W. Marks, a Navy rear admiral of the lower half who commands Carrier Strike Group Nine in San Diego, California, was nominated for appointment to the grade of rear admiral. The Department of War announced the nomination July 16, 2026 at 4:16 PM ET. The nomination advances Marks from the one-star pay grade to the full two-star rank.
Marks currently oversees Carrier Strike Group Nine, a strike group based in San Diego that centers on an aircraft carrier and its escorting cruisers, destroyers and air wing, according to war.gov. The promotion recognizes his leadership of that command and signals a potential increase in responsibility within the fleet, according to war.gov.
Flag-officer nominations do not take effect on announcement. Each name moves to the Senate for confirmation before the officer pins on the new rank. The Constitution assigns the Senate the power to confirm military officer appointments, a check that applies to every general and admiral the president nominates.
The advancement carries weight beyond one career. A rear admiral commanding a carrier strike group holds one of the Navy’s most consequential operational assignments, directing thousands of sailors and one of the service’s 11 carriers. The added star widens the pool of officers eligible for numbered-fleet and higher joint commands. For the officers behind Marks in the promotion queue, each elevation reshapes the competition for a fixed number of flag billets.
For the average reader, the announcement rarely alters daily life, yet it names the leaders who direct forward-deployed forces. A carrier strike group commander decides how U.S. naval power responds to crises from the Western Pacific to the Middle East. The sailors under that command, many drawn from communities across the country, answer to the officer the Senate confirms.
Has this happened before? It has. The Department of War, formerly named the Department of Defense, publishes flag- and general-officer nomination lists on a rolling basis, and carrier strike group commanders routinely appear among the officers advanced to two stars. Marks joins a long line of strike group commanders promoted while holding the assignment.
The Senate will make the next decision on the nomination. A confirmation date has not been announced.
Carrier strike groups trace their lineage to the fast carrier task forces that reshaped naval warfare in the Pacific. Task Force 58, the U.S. carrier force under Vice Adm. Marc Mitscher, struck Japanese airfields and fleets across 1944 and 1945. Its aviators destroyed hundreds of enemy aircraft during the June 1944 Battle of the Philippine Sea. Mitscher rose to admiral and commanded the Atlantic Fleet after the war, a path that later carrier commanders would follow through the same rank Marks now seeks.
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