President Joe Biden nominated Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Samuel Paparo to be the top commander of all U.S. military forces in the Pacific, the White House announced Friday.

Biden also nominated Adm. Lisa Franchetti to serve as the Navy’s top officer, Vice Adm. James Kilby as vice chief of naval operations and Vice Adm. Stephen “Web” Koehler to take over the Pacific Fleet from Paparo.

If confirmed by Congress, Franchetti will be only the second woman to lead a U.S. military branch after Coast Guard commandant Adm. Linda Fagan and the first woman to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In a statement Friday, Biden noted the historical significance of her selection and said that “throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas.”

In June, senior defense officials told several media outlets that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had recommended to Biden that he select Paparo over Franchetti to take the Navy’s top job. The apparent recommendation came as a surprise to many observers and generated considerable controversy in Washington.

In a statement Friday, Austin praised the nomination, saying, “I’m very proud that Admiral Franchetti has been nominated to be the first woman Chief of Naval Operations and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where she will continue to inspire all of us.”

A surface warfare officer, she has commanded at all levels, heading the U.S. 6th Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Korea. She was the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral, and she did multiple deployments, including as commander of a naval destroyer and two stints as aircraft carrier strike group commander.

Franchetti is currently vice chief of naval operations and was considered the front-runner to succeed Adm. Michael Gilday, who is retiring. The Pentagon-based role is largely administrative. Paparo was widely expected to stay in Hawaii and continue focusing on operations in the Pacific region.

Historically, commanding the Pacific Fleet has usually been seen as a steppingstone to taking over U.S. Indo-Pacific Command at Camp Smith. Paparo has been solidifying relationships with navies across Asia and is well liked by many of his regional counterparts. Most observers expected him to continue building on those relationships.

But as it is, all military appointments are currently on hold. Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has refused to approve military appointments in protest of the Defense Department’s current abortion policy under the Biden administration, with 250 military promotions still waiting on congressional approval.

In announcing his latest nominations, Biden said in a statement that “these leadership positions are far too important to delay filling while one Senator prioritizes his domestic political agenda over our military readiness.”

If confirmed, Paparo will succeed Adm. John Aquilino as commander of INDOPACOM at Camp Smith. The command oversees land, sea and air forces across the U.S. military’s largest theater of operations, which staffers at the command say spans “Hollywood to Bollywood and polar bears to penguins.”

Pentagon officials have said they now consider the INDOPACOM to be the military’s top-priority theater of operations. Much the focus has been on the South China Sea, a critical waterway that more than a third of all international trade moves through.

China claims nearly the entire sea as its exclusive territory, over the objections of neighboring countries, and has built bases on disputed reefs and islands to assert its claims. Chinese forces have also harassed and occasionally attacked fishermen and other maritime workers from neighboring countries.

The Pacific Fleet has been conducting nearly constant “freedom of navigation” operations in the region over China’s objections. Meanwhile, Hawaii-based soldiers and Marines have been training with their regional counterparts in an effort to shore up alliances. The Air Force has also adopted a strategy it calls “agile combat employment,” or ACE, spreading its forces across airstrips and islands across the region in an effort to make its planes harder to wipe out by missile strikes.

Koehler, the nominee to take over the Pacific Fleet if Congress approves Paparo’s promotion to Camp Smith, currently serves as director for strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Koehler is no stranger to the Pacific or Hawaii, having served stints as the commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet out of San Diego, deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet and director for operations at INDOPACOM.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, expressed support for Paparo’s and Koehler’s nominations. “They both have deep and proven knowledge and experience in the Indo-Pacific, which in this era of geopolitical challenge is critical to both assignments,” Case told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “It is also important that they know our Hawai‘i as we all navigate a critical period for our military here.”

Paparo has broad bipartisan support in Congress. But some people affected by the Red Hill water crisis have criticized the response of Pacific Fleet leaders, including Paparo. Army Maj. Mandy Feindt, who lived on base and whose family was among those who reported getting sick, has emerged as a highly visible critic and has vowed to lobby congressional lawmakers to oppose any promotion for Paparo.

For years Pacific Fleet officials insisted the aging World War II-era Red Hill fuel facility, which sits 100 feet above a critical aquifer most of Honolulu relies on for drinking water, was safe and critical to supporting the fleet’s Pacific operations. On May 6, 2021, fuel spilled from a pipe in the facility 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 water system, which serves 93,000 people.

Paparo took on his position at the Pacific Fleet just one day before the May 2021 spill. After the November spill he ordered an investigation, and according to emails cited in court documents, Paparo indicated he suspected it was related to the May 2021 incident.

Attorneys representing several of the affected families, including Feindt’s, in a lawsuit against the government tried unsuccessfully to compel Paparo to testify. In June a federal judge wrote that “though the parties disagree whether discovery regarding Plaintiffs’ proposed topics is relevant, it is apparent from this record that Plaintiffs have not attempted to obtain this information from other means of discovery. … There are at least five separate commands below Admiral Paparo with more direct oversight of Red Hill.”

If successfully nominated to lead U.S. forces in the Pacific, both Red Hill and the military’s fueling needs in the region will continue to be issues Paparo will have to contend with. The military is now trying to extract the 104 million gallons of fuel currently in Red Hill’s massive storage tanks and transition to a “distributed” fuel logistics model by placing it in a combination of storage facilities and tanker vessels spread across the Pacific region.

Most of the defueling is expected to be complete in January, but the long-term remediation and eventual closure of the Red Hill facility is expected to take years.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.