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ARMY
Troops get new commander
Lt. Gen. Edwin P. Smith, commander of U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter, will turn over the command to Lt. Gen. James Campbell at a ceremony Nov. 4.
The change of command for Smith, 57, was supposed to happen last fall.
But Sept. 11 had a "major impact" on the entire Unified Command Plan for the Defense Department, U.S. Army Pacific officials said.
The Unified Command Plan establishes the missions and geographic responsibilities for combatant commanders such as the Pacific commander in chief, or CINCPAC.
The new Northern Command, which is responsible for the defense of the United States, was an addition.
As a result of the shuffling, senior-officer moves throughout the Defense Department were delayed pending the outcome of the major Unified Command Plan changes, officials said.
Campbell, who commanded the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y., arrived in Hawai'i on Nov. 29. He had been serving as a special assistant to Smith.
Campbell received his third star in a ceremony at Fort Shafter on Sept. 12 and has been U.S. Army Pacific acting commander since Sept. 21.
Smith, who is retiring after 35 years of service, is on the Mainland on temporary duty and extended leave.
Smith and his wife, Jan, have an adult son. U.S. Army Pacific said he "is looking into several possibilities for his future, but has not yet reached a decision."
Smith was nominated for the job as U.S. Army Pacific commander in September 1998. He had been serving as the commander of the U.S. Southern European Task Force, Italy.
U.S. Army Pacific serves as the Army component of Pacific Command, and has authority over soldiers in Hawai'i, Alaska and Japan, as well as possessions and trust territories administered by Pacific Command.
Concerns raised about Strykers
Soldiers who participated in recent Army exercises using new Stryker armored vehicles pointed to several shortcomings they say need to be fixed, National Defense reported.
The 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) based at Schofield Barracks has been designated a Stryker unit, and plans are under way to add facilities and training trails on O'ahu and the Big Island as part of a $693 million upgrade.
Under the plan, the 2nd Brigade would be beefed up to 3,580 soldiers, and the unit would be equipped with about 380 of the 19-ton, eight-wheeled Strykers and 500 to 600 Humvees and trucks.
Concerns raised by soldiers during Millennium Challenge experiments in the Mojave Desert included discomfort caused by a heat buildup inside the armored vehicles, a lack of full-color sensors and excessive tire damage.
The Strykers do not have air-conditioning, and climate control was the soldiers' first request after saying they experienced temperatures of 120 degrees inside, National Defense said.
NAVY
Attack sub stops at Pearl
The Portsmouth N.H.-based submarine USS City of Corpus Christi arrived in Pearl Harbor on Friday for a port visit on its way to Guam — the first of three attack submarines scheduled to be forward based there.
The Los Angeles-class attack submarine departed in mid-August, and stopped in San Diego before heading to Hawai'i.
Last March, Corpus Christi completed an engineering refueling overhaul.
Following sea trials, the submarine returned to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for $300 million in maintenance and system upgrades.
Two other attack submarines, including the Norfolk, Va.-based USS San Francisco, will arrive by fiscal 2004, the Navy said. The third submarine to be homeported with Squadron 15 in Guam has yet to be identified.
The Navy said Guam's central Pacific location offers significant savings in time and distance for submarines and will provide increased days of operation, exercises and engagement to close a gap in meeting mission and contingency response requirements.
Since the end of the Cold War, the Pacific submarine force has shrunk from 40 attack submarines to 25.
Submarine missions include anti-submarine, anti-surface ship, strike, special and mine warfare, surveillance and intelligence monitoring and detecting operations.
