Air forces in Pacific get new leader

Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy received his fourth star Tuesday and took command of Pacific Air Forces and 46,000 military and civilian personnel in Hawaii, Alaska, Japan, Guam and South Korea.

About 340 fighter and attack aircraft are assigned to the Hawaii-based command, with others rotating regularly to Guam, the Air Force said late last year.

The command pilot with more than 3,000 hours in the F-16 Fighting Falcon and 168 combat flying hours is trading one hot spot for a bigger one: O’Shaughnessy was deputy commander of U.S. Forces Korea and the air component commander there.

O’Shaughnessy said the mantra of “fight tonight” was much more than a bumper sticker in South Korea. “It’s a way of life based on a very real threat just to the north,” he said.

“You have my commitment to apply that same level of operational urgency to my new command and enhance the ability to respond to any threat or circumstance — to be ready to fight tonight, because I fully understand that (U.S. Pacific Command) is first and foremost a war-fighting command,” O’Shaughnessy said.

U.S. Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith is the overarching command for Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps forces in the region.

China and North Korea are the U.S. military’s two biggest concerns in the Pacific. China on Tuesday soundly rejected a decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, Netherlands, finding that China has not historically exercised exclusive control over the South China Sea and has no legal basis to claim historic rights to resources there.

China lays claim to most of the South China Sea.

None of the military speakers at Tuesday’s change of command addressed the China issue, but there were visual reminders of it. The ceremony was held outside at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam with the harbor’s main channel as a backdrop, and two Chinese warships participating in Rim of the Pacific exercises — the missile destroyer Xi’an and supply ship Gaoyouhu — sailed by before and during the ceremony as they headed out for the at-sea portion of the exercise.

“There’s much that needs to be done as we continue encouraging peaceful resolutions of disputes, upholding principles including freedom of navigation and standing firm against aggression,” O’Shaughnessy said.

The United States needs to continue building regional cooperation “based on international rules and norms and enhance the capabilities of our allies and partners to provide security for not only themselves, but the region,” he said.

Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., head of U.S. Pacific Command, told O’Shaughnessy, whose call sign is “Shags,” that “no one is more prepared, more ready, more steeped in the art of joint air warfare and the application of air warfare to this theater and the threats we face here than you are.”

In South Korea, O’Shaughnessy “ensured strong and measured responses to the North Korean dictator’s irresponsible behavior,” Harris said. As an example, he said the recent deployment of F-22 Raptor fighters to the Korean Peninsula “is just one example of his understanding of the challenge that exists there and how we can meet it with air power.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, on his first trip to Hawaii after being sworn in as the Air Force’s top officer July 1, said, “Sometimes fate places the right leader in the right place at the right time in our history to lead us through uncertain periods.”

Goldfein said that’s the case with O’Shaughnessy’s arrival at Pacific Air Forces.

Harris welcomed O’Shaughnessy and his wife, Donna, back to Hawaii. Between 2013 and 2014 O’Shaughnessy was director for operations at U.S. Pacific Command. Airmen from the 5th, 7th and 11th Air Forces, which report to Pacific Air Forces, were at attention on the waterfront area where the ceremony was held.

“In case you folks didn’t know, Shags is a passionate ice hockey player,” Harris told those assembled. “I’d expect no less from a guy who was born in Canada, grew up in Boston and played goalie for the Air Force Academy. It’s in his blood, but it’s probably going to be harder to find a seniors league here in Hawaii.”

The arrival of a new Pacific Air Forces commander was delayed as other command changes in the Air Force were sorted out and with a break by the U.S. Senate, which approves top-tier military appointments.

Gen. Lori Robinson, past commander of Pacific Air Forces, became the first woman to lead a combatant command when she took over U.S. Northern Command on May 13. Lt. Gen. Russell Handy, the 11th Air Force commander in Alaska, filled in on the Pacific Air Forces job in the interim.