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A year after breaking barriers as the first woman to become a four-star admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard, Adm. Linda Fagan made history again on Wednesday by becoming the first woman to assume command of the service and the first woman to lead any of the U.S. armed forces.

In a change of command ceremony in Washington, D.C., attended by President Joe Biden, Fagan relieved Adm. Karl Schultz as commandant of the Coast Guard. Fagan had served as the vice commandant since June 2021. After the change of command, Schultz retired after 39 years of service.

In a speech, Biden praised Fagan for her "outstanding leadership and accomplishment."

"The trailblazing career of Admiral Fagan shows young people entering the services, we mean what we say: There are no doors — no doors — closed to women," Biden told around 2,000 cheering guests at Coast Guard headquarters. "Now we need to keep working to make sure Admiral Fagan may be the first but not the only person. We need to see more women at the highest levels of command in the Coast Guard and across every service in the armed forces."