Admiral welcomes
third Pearl tour

Navy Rear Adm.-select Michael C. Vitale will return to Pearl Harbor for the third time tomorrow -- this time to take command of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific. He likes to point out that he will head the only Navy region where a commander is in charge of 60 Navy commands that includes 11 surface ships, 17 submarines and four aircraft squadrons.

Vitale, 49, will also be charge of 15,000 active-duty Navy personnel, 20,000 Navy family members and 10,000 civilian employees.

Several other Hawaii military installations and commands this month will get new bosses.

At Kaneohe Bay, Brig. Gen. George J. Trautman III will take command of Marine Corps Base Hawaii from Brig. Gen. Jerry C. McAbee tomorrow. Trautman comes to Kaneohe Bay after serving as deputy director of plans and policy at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. McAbee, who assumed command of the Kaneohe base on Sept. 6, 2001, will become the deputy commanding general at U.S. Marine Forces Central Command in Tampa.

At Fort Shafter, Lt. Gen. John Brown III will assume command of U.S. Army Pacific Aug. 25. Brown has been the commanding general of U.S. Army Alaska since 2002.

Vitale recalls that Pearl Harbor and the cruiser USS Reeves was his first "exciting introduction" to Navy life in 1978 shortly after he was commissioned through Navy ROTC program from the University of Louisville.

During his tour, the Reeves conducted rescue operations off Vietnam and participated in the attempted rescue of U.S. hostages in Iran.

"The Reeves was one of five ships with missile capabilities," Reeves recalled in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles, "and we were on our way to the (Persian) Gulf when we came across a boat with 79 Vietnamese people trying to get out of Vietnam. We weren't allowed to do much more than give them supplies ... but the ship's crew disabled its own engines and we ended up taking the refugees to Singapore."

As for the Iranian hostage rescue operations, Vitale, then a junior damage control assistant officer on the Reeves, said: "We didn't even know what was going on. We went to general quarters and launched our helicopters and special forces team. Seven hours later we stood down because the attempt had failed."

Vitale returned to Pearl Harbor in 1996 as skipper of the destroyer USS McCain.

The Navy officer with 27 years of service said he and his wife have a soft spot for the islands. "My wife had a whole room in our home in Virginia dedicated to Hawaii," said Vitale, whose last job was director of Senate liaison in the Office of Legislative Affairs.

MOVING UP

>> Brig. Gen. David P. Fridovich, currently deputy director for operations at U.S. Pacific Command, to commander of Special Operations Command.
>> Rear Adm. Thomas R. Cullison, U.S. Pacific Command surgeon, will become the medical officer to the Marine Corps at the Pentagon, replacing Rear Adm. Robert D. Hufstader, Jr. Hufstader will become the new U.S. Pacific Command surgeon.
>> Vice Adm. Gary Roughead, currently commander of Striking Fleet Atlantic and 2nd Fleet in Norfolk, Va., will become vice deputy commander, U.S. Pacific Command.

Pearl Harbor

>> Capt. Robert Bronson has assumed command of the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center.