Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be at Camp H.M. Smith on Monday to fete Adm. Timothy J. Keating, who is stepping down as head of U.S. Pacific Command, and to welcome Adm. Robert Willard, who is assuming the post.

U.S. Pacific Command will hold its change of command ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Nimitz-MacArthur Pacific Command Center in Halawa Heights.
Gates is slated to preside at the change of command for what is the oldest and largest U.S. combatant command.
A Pentagon spokesman said the secretary will pay tribute to Keating, 60, who will retire in early December with 42 years of military service.
U.S. Pacific Command covers half the globe. The world’s six largest armed forces are in the region. U.S. military and civilian personnel assigned to U.S. Pacific Command number approximately 325,000, or about one-fifth of total U.S. military strength.
In the 2 1/2 years Keating has been the combatant commander for U.S. Pacific Command, he has been to 29 of 36 countries within his “area of responsibility,” working on engagement with other nations’ militaries and civilian leaders.
On Monday, Keating will turn over the command to Willard, a fellow Navy pilot who until recently headed up U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Gates this weekend sets out on an overseas trip that begins with the change of command, followed by visits to South Korea, Japan and a NATO defense ministers conference in Slovakia.
That 10 a.m. ceremony may have a two-fold impact on the Halawa Heights Community, officials said.
Between 10 a.m. and noon Sunday, an Army artillery saluting battery will fire a practice 19-gun salute from the lawn in front of Pacific Command’s headquarters as part of ceremony rehearsals, the military said.
That same battery will also fire a 19-gun salute during the Monday morning ceremony. There will also be increased traffic on Halawa Heights Drive from 8 a.m. until noon Monday.