Isle Pacific Fleet
leader chosen

Vice Adm. Roughead
would take charge of
forces at Pearl Harbor

Vice Adm. Gary Roughead, No. 2 man at the Pacific Command for only five months, was nominated yesterday to take charge of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, replacing Adm. Walter Doran.

Gary Roughead: He served as point man on Navy efforts to re-evaluate fleet readiness.

The nomination by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will mean a promotion to four stars for Roughead once he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the 30th commander of the Navy in the Pacific. He would be in charge of 200 ships, 2,000 aircraft and more than 239,000 sailors, Marines and civilians.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye said: "With his extensive fleet command experience and service in Washington as the Navy's chief of legislative affairs, Adm. Roughead is a well qualified to command the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

"I am certain he will be well prepared to successfully meet the challenges that his new responsibilities will bring."

Roughead, 53, came to the Pacific Command on Oct. 9 after serving as commander of the U.S. 2nd Fleet in the Atlantic, based in Norfolk, Va.

His reassignment was expected after Adm. William Fallon was picked to lead the Pacific Command. Regulations do not allow the commander and deputy commander of a unified command to be from the same service branch.

Fallon, who commanded Fleet Forces Command, became Pacific Force boss on Saturday.

Roughead was the Navy's point man on the fleet readiness program, an effort to create a Navy that can respond more quickly to world trouble spots.

His appointment comes as the Pacific Fleet faces major structural changes, including the possibility of home-porting a nuclear aircraft carrier at Pearl Harbor and locating an accompanying airwing of more than six dozen jet fighters and support aircraft on various bases on Oahu.

A report by Pacific Fleet's staff on the feasibility of Pearl Harbor accommodation of the carrier and 6,000 sailors and aviators is due this spring, around the same time as the Pentagon's latest recommendations of which military bases should be closed.

Both Doran, 59, and the past Pacific Forces commander, Adm. Thomas Fargo, have supported relocation of a carrier to Hawaii.

Roughead, a 1973 graduate of the Naval Academy, has extensive experience in the Pacific.

He was the first surface warfare officer to command both an Aegis-class destroyer, USS Barry, and the Pearl Harbor-based Aegis-class cruiser USS Port Royal from 1996-97.

From 1993 to 1994, Roughead was the executive assistant to Pacific Forces commander Adm. Charles Larson.

He has served as commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy from August 1997 to April 2000, headed Cruiser Destroyer Group Two while serving as the George Washington Carrier Battle Group leader and was the Navy's chief of legislative affairs.