Adm. Stephen Koehler salutes as he arrives to take command of U.S. Pacific Fleet at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, on April 4, 2024. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii — A naval aviator and former commander of 3rd Fleet assumed command of U.S. Pacific Fleet during a Thursday ceremony in Hawaii.
Adm. Stephen Koehler replaces Adm. Samuel Paparo, who is slated to take the reins of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command next month.
Paparo will replace Adm. John Aquilino, who has headed Indo-Pacific Command since April 2021.
During remarks at the pier-side ceremony, Aquilino was effusive in his praise for Paparo and Koehler, describing them as “the world’s greatest warfighters.”
Pacific Fleet’s area of operation encompasses roughly 100 million square miles, spanning from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south.
The fleet consists of about 200 ships, 1,500 aircraft and 150,000 uniformed and civilian personnel.
Adm. Stephen Koehler, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, left, speaks with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. John Aquilino after a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, on April 4, 2024. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
Koehler is a 1986 graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder and was commissioned through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, according to his official Navy biography.
He was designated a naval aviator in March 1989 and has flown more than 3,900 hours in F-14 Tomcat and F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, making 600 carrier landings.
Among his career commands were the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and Carrier Strike Group 9.
His tours supported operations Desert Storm, Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Inherent Resolve and Freedom’s Sentinel.
He was a deputy commander for Pacific Fleet and commanded the San Diego-based 3rd Fleet. Most recently, he was director for strategy, plans and policy with the Joint Staff in the Pentagon.
Speaking at Thursday’s ceremony, Koehler noted the many foreign officials in the audience.
“Our alliances and partnerships are the unbreakable bedrock of our national security,” he said.
Adm. Samuel Paparo arrives at a ceremony April 4, 2024, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam where he turned over command of U.S. Pacific Fleet to Adm. Steve Koehler. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
The United States and Pacific Fleet will continue to be the “North Star, the guiding light” for those nations, Koehler said.
“We will continue to be the partner of choice for all like-minded nations,” he said. “We will continue to provide constant, credible and capable combat power throughout the Indo-Pacific while continuing to build and hone our warfighting edge.”
Koehler takes command of Pacific Fleet at a time the region is undergoing “trends toward disorder,” Paparo said.
Those trends are being ushered in by “a revisionist, revanchist and expanding [China], a ruthless Russia, an intractable North Korea and violent extremist supporters who believe in the logic of power rather than the power of logic,” Paparo said.
“In this contested environment, deterring conflict is our highest duty,” he said.
