Cassias will take over
Pacific Fleet submarines

Jeffrey B. Cassias: Will replace the retiring Rear Adm. Paul Sullivan on April 20

Cassias is currently commander of Navy Region Northeast and commander of Submarine Group 2 in Groton, Conn., and commander of Submarine Group 10 in Kings Bay, Ga. Cassias' change of command is scheduled for April 20.

Cassias served as commanding officer of the nuclear attack submarine USS Birmingham (SSN 695) from April 1992 to November 1994. During this tour, Birmingham completed a Persian Gulf deployment with the Nimitz Battle Group and a deployment to the western Pacific.

Ashore, Cassias served three tours at Pearl Harbor on the staff of Pacific Fleet's Submarine Force.

He graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1974 and was commissioned through Officer Candidate School in October 1974.

Sullivan was one of three admirals who presided over the unprecedented court of inquiry three years ago of Cmdr. Scott Waddle, who commanded the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville. The sub collided with a Japanese fisheries training vessel in February 2001, killing nine people, including several high school students. Waddle was reprimanded and allowed to retire, keeping both his rank and his pension.

Sullivan was named as head of the Pacific Fleet's sub force in April 2003 and took command in August. There are 37 submarines in Pacific Fleet -- split between Hawaii, California, Guam and Washington -- with 17 attack submarines assigned to Pearl Harbor. None of the Pacific Fleet's three guided-missile submarines is based in Hawaii.

Maj. Gen. William H. Brandenburg, U.S. Army Pacific's deputy commanding general at Fort Shafter, has been selected as the deputy commanding general (detainee operations) and commanding general of Task Force 134, Multinational Force in Iraq.