On April 24, 2018, the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmed Davidson to succeed Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr. as the commander of United States Pacific Command. The change of command ceremony happened on May 30, 2018.[2] On that same day, United States Pacific Command was renamed to United States Indo-Pacific Command.[3] When Admiral Kurt W. Tidd retired, Davidson received the title of "Old Salt", conferred upon the longest-serving surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy.[4] Davidson relinquished the title to Admiral Christopher W. Grady upon his retirement.[5]
Naval career
Admiral Davidson is piped aboard during the INDOPACOM change of command ceremony. He would retire from active duty the following day, 1 May 2021.
Ashore, Davidson has served in fleet, interagency, and joint tours as a flag officer; he was previously the director of maritime operations at United States Fleet Forces Command, the senior military advisor to the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) at the State Department, and the deputy director for strategy and policy in the J-5 directorate of the Joint Staff. He served earlier in his career in policy, strategy, and operations billets on multiple tours with the U.S. Pacific Fleet staff, the Navy staff, and the Joint Staff, and as the Navy’s military aide to the Vice President of the United States.
On March 5, 2020, Davidson ordered the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt to conduct its long-scheduled visit to Da Nang, Vietnam. The port call was politically important, to show United States military strength in a region increasingly unnerved by Beijing's growing territorial claims in the South China Sea.[6] However, nearly three weeks prior, on February 14, the United States Navy had ordered all ships in the Indo-Pacific region that had made port calls to quarantine at sea for at least 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the novel coronavirus. The navy also directed the Seventh Fleet headquarters in Yokosuka, Japan to screen everyone accessing the fleet's warships and aircraft. Davidson chose to accept the risk of possible coronavirus infections, and allow the visit to proceed.[7]
Within days of completing the port call, sailors aboard the Roosevelt began testing positive for the coronavirus. By April 13, nearly 600 sailors had tested positive, with one death, 4,000 sailors had been evacuated from the ship, and the ship's commander, Captain Brett Crozier, had been relieved of command.[8]
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