Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., an assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, will assume command of the Pacific Fleet on Oct. 16 at Pearl Harbor and will receive his fourth star as a full admiral.

Harris will replace Adm. Cecil Haney, who takes over as leader of the Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. The command is assigned to deter and detect nuclear attacks.

Haney assumed command of the Pacific Fleet last year.

Harris was born in Japan and raised in Tennessee and Florida. Last year he was keynote speaker at the Go for Broke National Education Center’s Evening of Aloha in Los Angeles.

In his speech he said that his Japa­nese mother taught him to be proud of his ethnic heritage, and that he learned about the importance of "giri" (duty or obligation) from her.

After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1978, he trained as a naval flight officer. He has logged 4,400 flight hours, including more than 400 combat hours, in maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft.

The Pacific Fleet has nearly 200 surface ships and submarines and nearly 1,100 aircraft from the U.S. West Coast to the Indian Ocean. It includes more than 140,000 sailors and civilians.