NORFOLK, Va. — When Adm. Daryl L. Caudle handed over command of U.S. Fleet Forces Command last August, he wasn’t just passing a flag. He was transferring responsibility for a fundamentally different Atlantic Fleet than the one he inherited in December 2021.
The Aug. 6, 2025 ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk brought Gen. Gregory M. Guillot from NORAD and U.S. Northern Command to preside over the change. Vice Adm. John Gumbleton stepped in as acting commander, taking the reins of more than 138,000 personnel, 120 ships and submarines, 1,500 aircraft, seven task forces, and five carrier strike groups.
But the numbers tell only part of the story. Caudle spent three and a half years dismantling how the Atlantic Fleet operated and rebuilding it for a different kind of fight.
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Tearing Down Walls Between Commands
The admiral’s signature move was something called One Atlantic. The name sounds simple, but the concept upended decades of naval operations.
Traditional command structures split the Atlantic along geographic boundaries. A submarine operating near Iceland answered to one commander. Cross an invisible line toward the Mediterranean, and you reported to someone else. The bureaucracy slowed responses and created gaps adversaries could exploit.
Caudle erased those lines. Ships and submarines now move between U.S. Northern Command and European Command areas without the paperwork shuffle. When Russia increased naval activity in the Arctic and North Atlantic, Fleet Forces units could respond faster because the old barriers were gone.
“In each role, Admiral Caudle served with distinction, persistently advocating for modernization while emphasizing fleet readiness and wartime preparedness,” Guillot said during the ceremony. Caudle had juggled four simultaneous command positions: Joint Force Maritime Component Commander Strategic, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Strategic Command, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Northern Command, and his primary role leading Fleet Forces.
Red Sea Puts Training to the Test
Those reforms faced real combat in the Red Sea starting in late 2023. Houthi forces in Yemen launched missiles and drones at commercial shipping and coalition warships. Fleet Forces units deployed to Operations Prosperity Guardian and Poseidon Archer, the defensive and offensive missions that became the Navy’s most sustained combat since World War II.
Destroyers and cruisers intercepted cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles while protecting merchant traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb strait. The operations confirmed what Caudle had been building: units trained to pivot quickly between peacetime operations and high-end combat.
Ships that left Norfolk ready to fight didn’t need weeks of additional preparation when threats emerged. The concept worked.
Building a New Training Foundation
In 2024, Fleet Forces opened the Hefti Global Live-Virtual-Constructive Operations Center. The facility combines actual ships and aircraft with computer simulations to create training scenarios that would be too expensive or dangerous to run with only real equipment.
Crews practice against threats that mirror Chinese or Russian capabilities without burning through fuel, wearing out aircraft, or firing live missiles. The technology lets the Navy test new tactics before committing them to real operations.
Caudle also led the Navy’s participation in Large Scale Exercise 2023 and 2025. LSE 2025 ran from July 30 to Aug. 8, spanning 22 time zones and including allies and partners for the first time. All seven U.S. numbered fleets and 10 Fleet Maritime Operations Centers operated together, testing coordination across the globe.
The exercises validated the Global Maritime Response Plan, a framework Caudle called his proudest accomplishment. The plan identifies which units can surge from training to combat operations immediately and how to escalate readiness across the force during a crisis.
The Handoff
Gumbleton, a naval aviator from Falmouth, Massachusetts, held the acting commander position for four months. The Norwich University graduate brought experience from Expeditionary Strike Group 3 and previous work as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Budget.
On Dec. 1, 2025, Adm. Karl Thomas took over as the 44th Fleet Forces commander during a ceremony aboard USS Harry S. Truman. Thomas had spent the previous two and a half years as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare and the 69th Director of Naval Intelligence.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle presided over that ceremony. The Senate had confirmed him as the Navy’s 34th CNO on July 31, and he was sworn in Aug. 25, replacing acting CNO Adm. James Kilby.
President Donald Trump nominated Caudle after firing Adm. Lisa Franchetti in February 2025. The CNO position sat vacant for nearly six months before Trump announced his pick in June.
From Submarines to the Pentagon
Caudle came up through the submarine force. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina native graduated magna cum laude from North Carolina State University in 1985 with a degree in chemical engineering. He commanded USS Jefferson City, USS Topeka, and USS Helena before moving to squadron and force command positions.
His shore assignments included time with the Joint Staff and leadership of Submarine Force Pacific before he took over Fleet Forces in December 2021.
As CNO, Caudle organized his vision around three concepts: the Foundry, the Fleet, and the Fight. The Foundry covers infrastructure, shipyards, maintenance facilities, and the people who build and repair ships. The Fleet represents integrated combat power across domains. The Fight describes how the Navy operates in conflict.
“Built in the Foundry, Tempered in the Fleet, Forged to Fight” became his motto for the service.
In his remarks during the Fleet Forces relinquishment ceremony, Caudle focused on the people who executed his vision. “Leading this extraordinary team has been an honor,” he said. “Your dedication, resilience, and pursuit of excellence have been the driving force behind everything Fleet Forces Command achieved in propelling our Navy forward.”
What Comes Next
Thomas inherits a command structure that looks nothing like the one Caudle received in 2021. The question now is whether the changes stick.
Maritime Command Elements East and West still coordinate homeland defense and disaster response. The One Atlantic concept remains in place. The Hefti Center continues training crews in simulated environments. Large Scale Exercise 2027 is already in planning.
The Navy spent decades building command structures that worked when the Soviet Union collapsed and no peer competitor threatened U.S. naval dominance. Caudle bet those structures wouldn’t work against China or a resurgent Russia.
His USFFC relinquishment marked the moment the Navy committed to finding out if he was right.
