Navy's Captain Baker retires today Published June 13, 2013 By Mike W. Ray Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Commodore Charles "Chuck" Baker, commander of Strategic Communications Wing 1 and Task Force 124, retires this morning after a rewarding 27-year career in the United States Navy. Captain Baker, who has been in charge for the past 14½ months, will surrender command to Capt. Heather Cole at 10 a.m. today in Bldg. 820, hangar bay 2. The captain is proud of his accomplishments. "During every tour I have tried to make the place I worked better than I found it," he said. "I think I have been successful at that." He hopes his legacy is, "He cared about his Sailors." His primary regret? "Shipmates lost." Federal budget cuts have required "a lot of man-hours defending our requirements," he said. "Our mission is very important." SCW-1 has two missions. One is very-low frequency communications with the Navy's fleet of ballistic missile-equipped submarines conducted in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In addition, the Navy's fleet of E-6B Mercurys provides command and control for all U.S. nuclear forces in the event that ground-based command centers are destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable. Nevertheless, like everyone else the Navy has been compelled to tighten its belt. "These are tough times," Captain Baker said. The 49-year-old commodore said his plans are still vague. His immediate predecessor became an airline pilot, but Captain Baker indicated he has no such intentions. The one thing of which he is certain is that he and his family will remain in Norman. Captain Baker received his commission through the Aviation Officer Candidate program in 1987 and was designated a naval aviator in 1988. He was picked to attend the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1992, and graduated in late 1993. He was a test pilot on the E-6 Mercury airborne command post and communications relay aircraft, the C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft, and the T-34C Turbo Mentor aircraft. The captain estimates that during his career he has amassed approximately 8,000 flying hours, about 4,200 of those as a pilot of perhaps 39 airplanes and helicopters. However, he has had little time to fly in his job as commodore. "The more senior you get in your military career, the less you plan on flying because it's difficult to find the time," he explained. Captain Baker has served four tours of duty at Tinker. He reported to the Ironman Squadron of Fleet Reconnaissance Squadron THREE in 1996, to serve as the safety officer and assistant operations officer. Promoted to lieutenant commander in 1997, he attended the Naval War College, where he earned a master of arts degree in national security and strategic studies; after graduation, he returned to Tinker in late 1998 for his department head tour, serving as the operations officer with the Shadows of VQ-4 for a year and a half. Captain Baker returned to VQ-4 in April 2004 as the executive officer and assumed command of the Shadows a year later. After a year-long command tour Captain Baker reported to the Pentagon, where he served as the E-6B requirements officer on the staff of the chief of Naval Operations for three and a half years. In August 2010, Captain Baker became deputy commander of SCW-1 and TF-124, and assumed command in March 2012. As the commander he has been the overall supervisor of almost 1,700 Navy personnel. They include approximately 1,200 stationed at Tinker and another 500 at three forward operating bases: Travis AFB, Calif.; Offutt AFB, Neb.; and Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. The Navy has occupied a section on the south side of Tinker AFB for 20 years, and, "I am proud of the relationship with Team Tinker," Commodore Baker said. "The Air Force does a great job of including us and making the Navy feel welcome here."