Pacific Command handover tomorrow
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Adm. Thomas Fargo takes over as commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith tomorrow, following unanimous Senate confirmation.
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Among Fargo's first expected tasks: a stop in the Philippines to assess the growing presence of U.S. troops in the country, and whether anti-terrorism training should continue to be conducted at the battalion level with Filipino troops.
Adm. Thomas Fargo was confirmed Monday by the Senate.
At a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday, Fargo said if confirmed, his first trip to the region will include the Philippines, "where I can spend time on the ground, and talk to our commanders and evaluate and assess this mission."
Fargo, the 20th commander in chief of Pacific Command, was confirmed late Monday. His new command, the largest of nine unified military commands, covers 308,000 U.S. military personnel and 43 countries spread over half the globe.
It also includes seven of the world's eight largest armies, continued tensions between China and Taiwan, India and Pakistan, and on the Korean Peninsula, and emerging threats in the Philippines and Indonesia.
"The Pacific Command region is becoming a new front in the war on international terrorism," Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said during the hearings.
Fargo, 53, takes over the job held by Adm. Dennis Blair, who is retiring from the military. Blair has taken a position as senior fellow with the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Va.
Fargo yesterday withheld comment on the confirmation pending the change-of-command ceremony tomorrow at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i at Kane'ohe Bay. Deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz is expected to attend.
Levin, who raised concern about U.S. troops in the southern Philippines being drawn into combat with Abu Sayyaf or other insurgent groups, received Fargo's assurance that the Armed Services Committee and Congress will be notified if the decision is made to conduct anti-terrorism exercises at the company level rather than with a larger battalion.
