Senate committee questions Pacific Command nominee
By Mike Madden
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers yesterday predicted an easy confirmation for Adm. William "Fox" Fallon, President Bush's pick to head the U.S. Pacific Command.
Bill Clark • Gannett News Service
Fallon, 60, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee as Bush's nominee to take over from Adm. Thomas B. Fargo as commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific and South Asia. For a year and a half, Fallon has been commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, based in Norfolk, Va.
Hawai'i Sen. Daniel Akaka, Navy Adm. William J. Fallon and Fallon's wife, Mary, exchanged greetings yesterday on Capitol Hill before Fallon testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"I congratulate you, admiral," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the committee chairman.
Urgent problems will confront Fallon as soon as he takes the post in Honolulu, if he is confirmed. North Korea declared this week that it has nuclear weapons and broke off talks with a six-nation group trying to deter it from further atomic development. Pacific Command also is coordinating U.S. response to the South Asia tsunami and must deal with China.
"I know that there are many challenges in the Asia and Pacific arena," Fallon said.
Fallon already has experience in the kind of top-level military diplomacy the Pacific Command post calls for. In 2001, Bush sent him to Japan to apologize after the USS Greeneville, based at Pearl Harbor, crashed into the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel, killing nine people on board.
Only a handful of lawmakers attended the hearing. Neither Hawai'i senator was there, and Arizona Republican John McCain, who had objected to Air Force Gen. Gregory S. Martin taking the post, skipped it as well. Martin was Bush's first pick to replace Fargo, who retired.
Warner asked Fallon brief questions about how to handle North Korea and China. Fallon said diplomacy and continued military deterrence would be necessary in the future.
The committee's top Democrat, Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, asked Fallon about an investigation into whether Navy ships using sonar had caused whales to beach themselves in North Carolina. Fallon said the Navy was still looking into the matter.
Fallon's wife, Mary, accompanied him at the hearing.
No date has been set for a committee vote on his nomination.
