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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Thursday, May 2, 2002

Pacific Fleet command changes Saturday

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

Adm. Walter F. Doran will relieve Adm. Thomas B. Fargo as commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet Saturday aboard the battleship USS Missouri.

Doran's appointment as the 30th Pacific Fleet commander was unanimously confirmed in a U.S. Senate vote Tuesday evening.

Most recently assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington D.C., Doran, 56, will head the world's largest naval command, which includes more than 180 ships, 1,400 aircraft and 232,500 sailors, Marines and civilians. Doran arrives back in the Pacific after serving as commander of the 7th Fleet from August of 1998 to July of 2000.

The 7th Fleet, operating out of Yokosuka, Japan, and with an area of responsibility covering the western Pacific and Indian oceans, reports to Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor.

At a change-of-command ceremony at Yokosuka Naval Base in 2000, Fargo called Doran a "consummate naval operator, astute diplomat, brilliant strategist and visionary leader."

Fargo assumes command of the Pacific Command today. Because of the limited time to plan the Pacific Fleet change of command, a ceremony only for members of the Pacific Fleet staff and family members is being held, officials said.