The spousal unit, a former Navy man himself, heard this on the news tonight and couldn't speak for several minutes while his jaw worked its way up off the floor. From DefenseNews.com:

U.S. Navy Adm. William “Fox” Fallon, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command has been tapped to replace Army Gen. John Abizaid as the commander of U.S. Central Command and overseer of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a media report.[snip]

As a sailor tapped to lead a combatant command engaged in a furious ground war, Fallon is more of a surprise.

Um, yeah. I think that's safe to say.

Okay, let's throw the floor open under the it-would-be-irresponsible-not-to-speculate rule. Perhaps Admiral Fallon is:

(a) a military genius combining the talents of Hannibal, Farragut, Grant, Thomas, Napoleon and Horatio Hornblower. And Sherlock Holmes while we're at it. He is capable of grasping the ideal deployment of land, air, space and sea forces with an eagle eye to the preferred talents of each, like a chessmaster dispersing pawns and knights alike.

(b) he's the highest ranking military officer who hasn't burst out laughing at Bush's War, or at least hasn't been caught on camera or by witnesses doing same

(c) he does'nt owe jack shit to any Army officers who will be under his command and can therefor send them off on bizarre deployments without batting an eye. They can't get back at him either.

(d) Something else that somehow makes sense. Because the above three exhaust my powers of imagination.

Otherwise we would have to think about the fact that there are two full carrier groups in the Persian Gulf/Middle East region just floating around doing nothing. And I don't want to think about that.