Senate poised to confirm Willard as head of Pacific Command

China's power and North Korea's erratic belligerence loom as the greatest challenges for America in the Pacific, said Adm. Robert F. Willard, tapped by the Obama administration to head Honolulu-based Pacific Command.

"We are rightly concerned about the situation in North Korea," Willard told the Senate Armed Services Committee today at his confirmation hearing.

Willard has commanded the Pacific Fleet since May 2007, a position held by Adm. Chester Nimitz during World War II.

Willard is a Los Angeles native and a 1973 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He spent much of his career as an F-14 fighter jet aviator before entering the ranks of the senior naval command. He earned a master's degree in engineering management from the Batten College and did graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.