PEARL HARBOR — Four of the highest-ranking admirals in the Navy stood together on Kilo Pier yesterday for the Pacific Fleet's change of command, with their presence and the USS Arizona Memorial in the background both reminders of the Pacific's past and present importance.

Adm. Gary Roughead was relieved by Adm. Robert F. Willard, who became the 31st commander in a lineage that includes Adm. Chester Nimitz's service during World War II.

Roughead's contributions over nearly two years of duty were lauded by one of those four-stars, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael G. Mullen.

Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the new head of the U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith, also spoke at the ceremony.

Mullen said Roughead, with an almost clairvoyant flair, "made critical decisions that both enhanced our capabilities and sent the right messages to our neighbors."

Roughead oversaw ballistic missile defense system operations and developed allied missile defense plans, Mullen said.

Mullen noted that "as the submarine threat of the Cold War disappeared, so, too did our proficiency," but in response to a growing regional submarine threat, Roughead refocused the Pacific Fleet to improve every aspect of anti-submarine warfare.

Aircraft carriers and expeditionary strike groups are now required to include anti-submarine warfare training off Hawai'i on western Pacific deployments.

A citation for a Distinguished Service Medal awarded to Roughead also credited him for last summer's Valiant Shield exercise off Guam, which brought together three aircraft carriers for the first time in 30 years and "demonstrated the flexibility and responsiveness of American naval power."

Roughead, 55, and his wife, Ellen, are leaving for the East Coast and a new job as head of Fleet Forces Command.

"It's very hard to believe that almost two years have passed since I took command of the Pacific Fleet, and that the time has come to say goodbye," Roughead told several hundred Navy personnel and guests, including military counterparts from Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Willard, an F-14 Tomcat aviator and the former vice chief of naval operations, assumed command of a region that spans more than half the globe and includes more than 170 ships and submarines, 1,300 aircraft and 122,000 sailors, reservists and civilians.

Willard was deputy and chief of staff for the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor from October 2001 to June 2002. Mullen welcomed back Willard and his wife, Donna.

" 'Rat' Willard, as most of us know him, is sitting like the Tomcats he used to fly — at tension throttle, full burner, and he's just waiting to launch," Mullen said.

Keating said it was his privilege to speak for all the men and women of the Pacific Command in expressing thanks to Roughead. Willard, meanwhile, acknowledged the history that has gone before him in accepting the challenges ahead.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.