Navy Adm. Gary Roughead has been nominated for reappointment to the grade of admiral and assignment as chief of naval operations (CNO). Roughead is currently serving as commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Norfolk, Va.
The CNO is an admiral (four-star) and is responsible to the Secretary of the Navy for the command, utilization of resources and operating efficiency of the operating forces of the Navy and of the Navy shore activities assigned by the Secretary. The CNO has administrative, rather than operational command authority over United States naval forces.
The operational chain of command runs from the Secretary of Defense directly to the combatant commanders, who have command authority over all military forces in their region. This structure, in which the service chiefs are responsible for personnel and readiness issues, while the combatant commanders are operationally responsible for the command of the military forces, is intended to allow the United States military the ability to function as a coherent whole, a system that was instituted as a result of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.
