Last Friday, 16 March, 2007 saw Admiral William "Fox" Fallon take over command of CENTCOM from General John Abizaid at a change of command ceremony held at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla.
These sorts of changes of command happen all the time in the military, at every level in the chain of command. What is special about this one, however, is that a Navy admiral is taking the helm over a traditionally Army or Marine-focused unified regional command.
What is really unique about this is that it is evidence that the Navy, long considered an outsider in the Joint arena, has finally "made it" - has finally "changed" (transformed?) enough from a platform-centric, open-ocean war-at-sea protect-the-sea-lanes-of-communication entity to one that is integrated with the other combat services to provide a broad spectrum of battlespace operations. This is a good thing, and Carl von Clausewitz is smiling, wherever he is.
U.S. Army photo by Spc. Patrick A Ziegler (RELEASED)
--Pinch Paisley, crossposted with more at the Instapinch
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