Pacific Fleet commander tapped as the Navy’s top officer

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has recommended the Oahu-based commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, Adm. Samuel Paparo, to serve as the Navy’s top officer, according to senior Pentagon officials.

The news comes as lawyers representing families affected by the Red Hill water crisis have been attempting to call on Paparo to testify in a lawsuit against the Navy playing out in Hawaii’s U.S. District Court.

Paparo oversees all U.S. Navy forces in the Pacific, which includes the 3rd Fleet out of San Diego, 7th Fleet out of Japan, and the facilities around the region that support them, including Red Hill, which officials had argued was a critical fuel reserve the Navy needed to support its Pacific operations.

President Joe Biden has not yet formally signed off on Paparo’s nomination to serve as chief of naval operations, according to officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no public announcement has been made. Paparo largely has bipartisan support in Congress.

In a statement, U.S. Rep. Ed Case said “Admiral Paparo is a highly qualified leader of our Navy who has demonstrated professionalism and commitment in addressing various challenges ranging from the geopolitical challenge of … (China) in the Indo-Pacific and beyond to a comprehensive response to Red Hill at home. I would support his presidential nomination to a higher level of responsibility.”

The Navy has been conducting near constant operations in the Pacific amid increasing geopolitical tensions as China and its neighbors are locked in bitter disputes over territorial and navigation rights in the South China Sea, a critical waterway that a third of all international trade travels through. This month, the Pearl Harbor-based destroyer USS Chung-Hoon had a confrontation with a Chinese navy vessel during a “freedom of navigation” transit through the Taiwan Strait.

On May 6, 2021, fuel at the Navy’s underground Red Hill storage facility spilled and entered part of the fire suppression system, where it sat until a worker accidentally ruptured a pipe in November 2021, leading to the fuel contaminating the Navy’s Oahu water system that serves 93,000 people. The military is working to remove the fuel from the underground storage tanks, which store 104 million gallons of fuel and sit just 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Oahu relies on for clean water. Remediation of the facility is expected to take much longer.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and the government have been locked in fierce debate over who should and should not be testifying in the case. Paparo officially took on his position at the Pacific Fleet just one day before the May 2021 spill. After the November pipe rupture, he ordered an investigation and according to emails cited in court documents, suspected it was related to the May 2021 incident.

Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice have resisted a motion from the plaintiffs’ lawyers calling for Paparo to testify, arguing that doing so would “impede the operations of the Executive Branch” and that it should be “permitted only in ‘extraordinary’ circumstances.’”

The plaintiffs filed a motion arguing that “only Admiral Paparo can testify to any of these critical lines of questioning … this information is unobtainable through any other source. This deposition is not sought to annoy, embarrass, oppress, or unduly burden Admiral Paparo, who will be treated with all due deference owed to his station but should not be shielded from essential litigation questioning solely because of that station.”

Attorneys on both sides of the case are also arguing over the government’s request to interview children over the age of 6 who were affected by the drinking water crisis to evaluate their fears around the water and evaluate damages.

“This is a case about a government that poisoned its people,” said Kristina Baehr, a lawyer representing Red Hill families. “The government that poisoned its people is not allowing the deposition of the officer responsible for the American asset that poisoned the people, (Paparo) was responsible for Red Hill, and yet they’re insisting on questioning children.”

U.S. Army Maj. Mandy Feindt, who lived in military housing at the time with her husband and children and has since emerged as a vocal critic of the military’s handling of the crisis, told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser that “from a service member’s perspective … I feel like it’s a slap in the face to Red Hill families.” Feindt says that news of Paparo’s apparent selection is a disappointment, but also “not a surprise.” She accused top officials of ignoring and trying to downplay the Red Hill crisis.

“It has been very disheartening to see dignitaries such as the secretary of defense come to Hawaii and not step foot into an impacted family’s home or organize an event specifically for Red Hill families,” she said. “So with Secretary of Defense Austin, making this decision to nominate Admiral Paparo in such a prestigious position as the chief of naval operations, again, it is a slap in the face.”

The selection of Paparo comes as a bit of a surprise since he had long been expected to move up to take over U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Commanding the Pacific Fleet is often a steppingstone to taking the helm at INDOPACOM at Camp Smith.

Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the current vice chief of naval operations, had been widely mentioned as a leading candidate for the top Navy job. If Franchetti were selected she would have become the second woman to be a military service chief, after Coast Guard Adm. Linda Fagan, and the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Biden is expected to approve the Paparo recommendation, but all nominations for senior military jobs are currently stalled because one U.S. senator disagrees with Austin’s decision to have the Defense Department pay for travel when a service member has to go out-of-state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has brought virtually all key senior military promotions to a halt due to his opposition to that policy.

Paparo is a naval aviator and a Top Gun graduate with more than 6,000 flight hours in Navy fighter jets and 1,100 landings on aircraft carriers. A Pennsylvania native, he graduated from Villanova University and was commissioned into the Navy in 1987.

Before coming to Hawaii, he commanded naval forces in the Middle East and also previously served as director of operations at U.S. Central Command in Florida.

Paparo’s selection was first reported by NBC News.

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Star-Advertiser writer Sophie Cocke and The Associated Press contributed to this report.