Navy Admiral To Head CENTCOM
Admiral William J. Fallon, currently in charge of Pacific Command, will soon be nominated to take over U.S. Central Command. He will be the first Admiral to command CENTCOM, the geographic command charged with running the Iraqi and Afghan theaters of the War on Terror, and will try to fill the large shoes of his predecessors -- including Generals Schwartzkopf, Franks, and Abizaid. Interestingly, ADM Fallon never commanded a ship; his major "at-sea" command was of a Carrier Air Wing, which is considered equivalent to commanding a carrier for the Navy aviation types as far as "checking the box" goes, career-wise.
posted by Bubblehead at 11:34 PM
5 Comments:
Here is a very insightful and high-minded article on this move from a former Army officer. As the article makes clear, it would be more of a stretch to deny the Iran connection at this point than to acknowledge it (and that's a moonbat-free observation).
1/06/2007 8:15 AM
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the definition of moonbat. How can that be a moonbat-free observation if Ralph Peters made it, given that he is one?
1/06/2007 9:00 AM
The appointment of Admiral Fallon should tell us that the USMC will have an increasing role in execution of CENTCOM's new plans.
The USMC is currently expanding its overall force size. The appointment of General Peter Pace, USMC, to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last year may have been a hat tip to how Washington wants the world to view our military machine in the near future - not as a band of button pushing nerds, but as one of the fiercest most reliable hand-to-hand fighting forces the world has ever seen.
Peters is absolutely wrong about USAF air attacks on Iran. That is not in the cards, nor will it be necessary.
1/06/2007 11:56 AM
F.A.T. needs to go back to his moonbat dictionary. Unca Ralph may be eight kinds of nuts, but he's no moonbat. You just have to know when to listen to him very carefully, and when to make that "talk to the hand" gesture.
I believe Lex; nobody making decisions about where to put four stars gives a romeo alpha about what they did back before they put stars on, with the glaring exception their warfare insignia. They don't want to unbalance the unions so badly that the shortchanged union squeaks too loudly. (See: Submariners in the 'E' Ring, 2000, one each; Surface Warriors about the time before Tailhook; Aviators after Tailhook; Marines in the Joint Chiefs, etc., etc.)
We did the exact opposite a couple of times, actually; Fargo went from CENT to PAC. OTOH that was before 9/11, and PAC at the time was the bigger deal.
Skippy worries about having nobody senior on deck when they move people up laterally. I think the people making those decisions worry more about who has what skill sets and whose personality quirks go with whose.
I couldn't read Fallon when I briefly worked near him--I was a little busy at the time, and my boss wasn't exactly thrilled with the Navy's Direction and so the stress was rather high.
1/06/2007 7:06 PM
Am interested that Fallon was moved to CENTCOM. For an admiral that would be a dead end assignment, unless he was headed for JCS.
Was not happy with Fallon with his public words when the Song sub showed up near the KH. He sounded way to naive. Maybe this is the lesson tour he needs...
Either that or this is the Fallon Gong. Appoligies to our Chinese spies that read this blog....
1/07/2007 12:02 AM
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