New AFSOUTH commander urges sense
of purpose, commitment, leadership
By Ward Sanderson,
Naples bureau
Ward Sanderson / Stars and Stripes
Adm. James O. Ellis, far left, prepares to give the Allied Forces Southern Europe flag to
Adm. Gregory G. Johnson, far right, during Wednesday's change-of-command ceremony in
Naples, Italy. |
NAPLES, Italy — The war on terrorism will test the NATO alliance as it has never
been tested. The world is forever changed. The military must be ready.
That’s the hard kernel of the warnings flag officers gave Wednesday in Naples.
They met at Allied Forces Southern Europe to send off Adm. James O. Ellis, who
commanded that headquarters and all U.S. Navy forces in Europe. And they welcomed his
successor, Adm. Gregory G. Johnson. It marked the first time in history that the commander
of the Navy’s 6th Fleet has left his nearby post in Gaeta to assume that of his
departing boss. Johnson left the 6th Fleet job on Tuesday.
The delicate fabric of global peace and prosperity — and the shadowy foes and
biological weapons threatening to unravel it — all took center stage along with the
two admirals.
Johnson’s comments were particularly pointed, warning troops and allies never to
relax their guard. He recalled the world’s "naive" hopes for peace when
Slobodan Milosevic stepped down as leader of Yugoslavia last year.
"We collectively breathed a sigh of relief and hoped we were headed toward a more
stable world," Johnson said. "We were sadly mistaken."
He cited the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen as the beginning of a new terror era.
Johnson called the more recent Sept. 11 attacks "the most devastating day of combat
in our nation’s history."
Despite the gravity of his remarks, Johnson said the West’s triumph in the Cold
War proves the North Atlantic Treaty Organization can win now.
"The mission of the terrorist is to create fear, despair and divisiveness,"
Johnson said. "We must deny him. It will take a collective sense of purpose,
commitment and leadership heretofore unknown."
The alliance should also recognize and fight future threats: weapons of mass
destruction and theater ballistic missiles, both heavy on the Bush Administration’s
agenda, he said.
On the finance front, Johnson warned that the economic shock waves now rattling global
capitalism can upset more than portfolios.
"Our fortunes are indeed interdependent. These economic pressures can lead to
regional instability."
America’s chief of naval operations, Adm. Vernon E. Clark, said Johnson is
particularly qualified for this "new war."
Speaking to Johnson, Clark invoked a variation of President Bush’s words before a
joint session of Congress following September’s attacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon.
"You’ve got to be vigilant, to be sharp, and to be ready."
During his farewell address, Ellis remembered first assuming AFSOUTH command and how he
predicted NATO’s challenges were far from over.
In October 1998, Ellis said his forces worked in a key region in the "time of
greatest world change."
"I arrived as a NATO neophyte," he said, "and leave as a passionate
believer in what the alliance is, and even more importantly, what it can become."
And just what that is remains to be seen. The alliance’s supreme commander, U.S.
Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, said this is a unique time in which NATO forces operate
outside their borders to keep peace.
Ralston also heaped praise on Ellis, whose leadership he considered crucial to the
Kosovo peace process.
"Admiral Ellis built confidence from doubt, and resolve from indecision,"
Ralston said.
In November, Ellis will take over U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska. Ralston remarked,
tongue-in-cheek, that Ellis may miss the "simplicity" of the Balkans as he
assumes responsibility for America’s nuclear arsenal.
Whether heading for Naples or Nebraska, the ambiguity of what’s next seemed lost
on no one. Even Wednesday’s weather seemed to say it. The ceremony began under a
drizzly, concrete canopy of sky that burned away to a blazing blue.
"The only thing we can be certain of is that things will have to be different in
the future," Johnson said at one point. "Much different."
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