Mayer served in the following shore duty assignments: Executive Assistant to the Chief of Legislative Affairs; Light Attack/Strike Fighter Junior Officer Detailer with the Navy's Bureau of Personnel (BUPERS) in Washington, D.C.; Spanish Command and Staff College in Madrid, Spain; the U.S.

Promoted to rear admiral (lower half), his first flag officer assignment was as Deputy Director of Operations (DJ3) at Headquarters, United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

On February 15, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that President George W. Bush had promoted him to the grade of Rear Admiral (Upper Half).

Thirteen nations participated in the exercise, which included more than 3,600 personnel, 36 ships, 3 submarines, over 40 aircraft, and 6 different ground forces from Allied and Partnership for Peace (PfP) nations which included Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It was the first time in the 31-year history of BALTOPS that the exercise included combined ground troops from Russia, Poland, Denmark and the United States.

As commander, he was responsible for the center's mission of providing safety assistance and advice to the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), the Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC), and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Safety in order to enhance the war fighting capability of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps, preserve resources and improve combat readiness by preventing mishaps and saving lives.

[6] On October 7, 2005, based on his service as former Chief of Naval Air Training and as Commander, Naval Safety Center, Rear Admiral Mayer was recognized as one of the nation's best and brightest engineers and scientists during the 17th Annual Hispanic Engineers National Achievement Awards Conference in Anaheim, California, where he received the program's military executive excellence award.