rear admiral and vice admiral, and was the first NFO to hold the since disestablished position of Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air Warfare (OP-05). He retired in 1993. Rear Admiral Stanley W. Bryant was the first NFO selected for the Navy's Nuclear Power Program as a Commander in 1986. As a Captain, he became the first NFO to command a nuclear aircraft carrier when he took command of (CVN 71) in July 1992. In his first posting following promotion to Flag rank, he became the first NFO and first carrier aviator to command the Iceland Defense Force in Keflavik, Iceland in 1994. He was the first NFO appointed to the position of Deputy Commander (then DCINC), U.S. Naval Forces Europe and retired from that position in 2001. Commander William P. Driscoll was the first NFO to become a flying ace, having achieved five aerial kills of VPAF fighter aircraft during the Vietnam War. Driscoll received the service's second-highest decoration, the Navy Cross, for his role in a 1972 dogfight with North Vietnamese MiGs. Driscoll separated from active duty in 1982 but remained in the United States Naval Reserve, flying the F-4 Phantom II and later the F-14 Tomcat in a Naval Air Reserve fighter squadron at NAS Miramar, eventually retiring in 2003 with the rank of Commander (O-5). Admiral William Fallon, an NFO who flew in the RA-5C Vigilante and the A-6 Intruder, was the first NFO to achieve four-star rank. As a three-star vice admiral, he was the first NFO to command a numbered fleet, the U.S. 2nd Fleet. He later served in four separate four-star assignments, to include command of two unified combatant commands. This included service as the 31st Vice Chief of Naval Operations from October 2000 to August 2003; the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and U.S. Atlantic Fleet from October 2003 to February 2005; Commander, U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) from February 2005 until March 2007; and Commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from March 2007 until his retirement in March 2008. Captain Dale Gardner was the first NFO to qualify and fly as a NASA Mission Specialist astronaut aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-8. He previously flew the F-14 Tomcat. He retired in 1990. Rear Admiral Benjamin Thurman Hacker was the first NFO flag officer, having been selected in 1980. He previously flew the P-2 Neptune and P-3 Orion. He retired in