Tripler Army Medical Center is getting a new leader with the nomination of Brig. Gen. Keith W. Gallagher, commanding general of Europe Regional Medical Command and command surgeon for U.S. Army Europe and the 7th Army in Germany.

Gallagher will replace Brig. Gen. Stephen L. Jones, who will become deputy commander of Joint Task Force-National Capital Region Medical Command at Bethesda, Md. Jones took over at Tripler in 2007.

Other nominations announced by the Pentagon yesterday include:

» Navy Capt. Gregory R. Thomas, commanding officer of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility since 2007, who will receive his first star as a rear admiral.

» Navy Capt. Colin G. Chinn, surgeon for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific at Camp Smith, also selected as rear admiral.

Gallagher commanded Moncrief Army Community Hospital at Fort Jackson, S.C., in 2002 and Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, Fort Campbell, Ky., four years later. He served in Iraq in 2004 as deputy commander of the 44th Medical Command.

Thomas is the first shipyard commander to be promoted to rear admiral since Dick Camacho in 1985.

Thomas, a 1982 U.S. Naval Academy graduate, assumed command of the state's largest industrial employer in June 2007 just two years after the shipyard escaped Pentagon attempts to close or downsize the military base.

Under intense lobbying from Hawaii's congressional and business leaders, Base Realignment and Closure Commission members voted against a staff recommendation to close the 100-year-old shipyard.

The Navy says that as shipyard commander, Thomas reached achievements of “;dramatically improving efficiency to return ships and submarines to the fleet on time, on budget, and with high-quality repairs; developing a 25-year shipyard modernization plan; and leading community support activities such as encouraging thousands of Hawaii's high school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math through the first robotics competitions.”;

A nuclear submarine-qualified officer, Thomas also has master's and doctorate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.