PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii—On a windy pier overlooking the USS Arizona memorial and the USS Missouri, Adm. Stephen Koehler took the helm of U.S. Pacific Fleet on Thursday, replacing Adm. Samuel Paparo, who will take command of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command next month.
Pacific Fleet includes 145,000 troops, 200 ships, 1,200 aircraft, and two numbered fleets, all “positioned and responsible for the maritime domain that covers half the globe,” INDOPACOM commander Adm. John Aquilino, himself a former commander of the fleet, said Thursday. The job entails commanding naval forces in “the world’s most concerning theater, against our world’s most dangerous adversaries,” he said.
Paparo named those adversaries in his remarks: “a revisionist, revanchist, and expansionist [China], a ruthless Russia, and an intractable North Korea.” But, echoing Aquilino, he said the goal is to prevent war, not provoke it.
In the Indo-Pacific, Paparo said, “Deterring conflict is our highest duty.”
To do that, Pacific Fleet must “show that the world’s greatest military is here,” and demonstrate that if an adversary takes it on, “they will lose,” Aquilino said, adding that Paparo “has done that beyond my expectations.” Koehler takes the job as the theater is “getting more dangerous, not less,” but he was “made for this position,” the INDOPACOM chief said.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti praised Paparo and Koehler, saying the former “personally pushed us to think, act and operate differently.” Of Koehler, whom she promoted on Wednesday night aboard the memorial for the sunken USS Arizona battleship, she said, “You know this theater, and you are a warfighter’s warfighter.”
Koehler—an F-14 pilot, like Aquilino and Paparo—comes to the job from the Pentagon, where he was director of strategy, plans, and policy for the joint staff. But he has served multiple tours in the region, including as director of operations for INDOPACOM and deputy commander of Pacific Fleet.
“I couldn’t be more fired up to be here,” Koehler told the audience, which was peppered with international partners. He stressed many of the same themes as the other admirals: collaborating with allies, joint integration, innovation, and deterrence.
“As we assemble here today, our competitors continue to challenge the rules-based global order with all the instruments of their national power, in their quest for might to be made right, and in their pursuit of a future in which the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. I don’t see it that way,” he said. “We will ensure regional stability through a consistent, stable presence, and if directed, we will defeat any adversary in the maritime domain.”
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