New United States Pacific Command Chief calls on President Aquino

From the Philippine News Agency (Aug 26): New United States Pacific Command Chief calls on President Aquino

The new commander of the United States Pacific Command (USPACOM), Admiral Harry Harris Jr., paid a courtesy call on President Benigno S. Aquino III at the Music Room of Malacañang on Wednesday.

Admiral Harris was accompanied by US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, USPACOM Foreign Affairs Policy Advisor Christopher Marut, Senior Defense Official Col. Earnest Lee, and Political Military Affairs Chief Marc Jackson.

He was received by Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Undersecretary Evan Garcia, and Assistant Secretary on American Affairs Maria Andrelita Austria, as well as Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya, and Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri.

The 59-year-old admiral assumed leadership of the USPACOM last May 27.

He was born in Japan to a Navy enlisted man and a Japanese mother and grew up in Tennessee. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and attended Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and Oxford University for his postgraduate studies.

He is the highest-ranking Asian American in the US Navy.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=797413