Updated at 4:29 p.m., Friday, September 28, 2007
Senate confirms former Pearl admiral as naval chief
Advertiser Staff
Adm. Gary Roughead, the former head of U.S. Pacific Fleet headquartered at Pearl Harbor, was unanimously confirmed today as chief of naval operations for the U.S. Navy.Roughead, who commanded U.S. Pacific Fleet from 2005 until May 2007, would replace Adm. Mike Mullen, who was nominated to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Roughead now heads U.S. Fleet Forces Command. The Navy has more than 340,000 active-duty personnel and more than 270 ships.
When he was the top naval commander in the Pacific, Roughead spearheaded the humanitarian deployment of the hospital ship USNS Mercy to the southern Philippines and tsunami-devastated areas of Indonesia.
Watch a video of Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, cite Roughead's humanitarian work as one reason he supported the nomination.
