Fair winds, INDOPACOM: Pentagon returns command name to US Pacific Command
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Another Pentagon-led name change was unveiled Tuesday, when it was announced that the military’s U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would be dropping “Indo” from its name and reverting back to the long used U.S. Pacific Command, or USPACOM.The move, according to a Pentagon release, “honors the command’s deep historical roots, fostering a sense of pride and collective spirit among all who serve in the Pacific.”“From its critical role in establishing the post-WWII regional security architecture to its coordination of joint forces during the Korean War, the Vietnam War and countless humanitarian operations, the USPACOM namesake carries decades of military heritage and enduring regional partnerships,” the release states. U.S. Pacific Command was the official name of the formation until May 2018, when, during the first term of President Donald Trump, it was changed to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command “in recognition of the increasing connectivity of the Indian and Pacific Oceans” and rising military and economic pressure emerging from Beijing, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said at the time. The command’s top officer in 2018, Adm. Harry Harris, acknowledged then that the change reflected the return of great power competition as decades of combat in the Global War on Terror were winding down. “I believe we are reaching an inflection point in history,” Harris said in 2018. “A geo-political competition between free and oppressive visions is taking place in the Indo-Pacific.”The name change announced Tuesday, meanwhile, will have no impact on the command’s mission or areas of operational responsibility that were in place under INDOPACOM, according to the release. The move is the latest in a series of rebranding initiatives launched by the Pentagon — from base names to the department itself — since Trump began his second term. In recent weeks the House and Senate armed services committees voted to advance legislation that would ratify the rebrand of the Department of Defense to the Depart