President Obama has nominated Adm. Robert Willard, a veteran Pacific hand, to lead the U.S. Pacific Command, the oldest and largest of the United States' unified military commands.

The Pentagon yesterday announced the nomination of Willard, who for the past two years has been the four-star commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor. The nomination is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates in March said he was recommending Willard to head up the Pacific Command, which stretches from the west coast of the U.S. to the western border of India, and from Antarctica to the North Pole.

China and its growing military and intentions in the Pacific, along with North Korea's nuclear threat, are key concerns for the command headquarters, based at Camp Smith on Halawa Heights.

U.S. military personnel in the region number about 250,000, about one-fifth of total U.S. military strength.

Willard became the 31st commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet — a lineage that includes Adm. Chester Nimitz's service during World War II — in May 2007.

An F-14 Tomcat aviator and the former vice chief of naval operations, Willard already commands a region that spans half the globe and includes more than 170 ships and submarines, 1,300 aircraft and 122,000 sailors, reservists and civilians.

Willard also was deputy and chief of staff for the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor from October 2001 to June 2002.

His call sign is "Rat," and Willard appeared in and was a consultant on the 1986 Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun." He piloted the plane posing as a Soviet Mig-28 that received a "salute" from Cruise and another pilot.

Willard succeeds Adm. Timothy Keating, who has been the head of U.S. Pacific Command since March 23, 2007.