Brig. Gen. John E. Seward was welcomed in a "Flying V" ceremony today at Fort Shafter in honor of his assuming duties as the U.S. Army, Pacific's new deputy commanding general.

"He is my right hand man, and I will depend on him to dig into the details of some of our most complex issues and represent the command at the highest levels of our Army," said Lt. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, USARPAC's commanding general.

The deputy position has been vacant since Brig. Gen. Francis J. Wiercinski departed USARPAC in mid-June to assume command of U.S. Army Japan at Camp Zama.

The Flying V is the U.S. Army Pacific's traditional ceremony to welcome or bid farewell to senior leaders.

Brig. Gen. Seward comes to USARPAC from Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., where he served as deputy commanding general for operations for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/U.S. Army Forces Strategic Command since August 2007, according to an Army news release.

Seward previously served at Fort Shafter where he was the first commanding general of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command when it was activated in October 2005.

U.S. Army, Pacific is the Army service component of U.S. Pacific Command and is responsible for all U.S. land, air and sea military forces from the west coast of the U.S. mainland to the east coast of Africa.

USARPAC is responsible for 33,000 full time Soldiers, 7,800 Reserve Soldiers and 7,400 Army Civilians in Hawaii, Alaska, Japan, Guam and American Samoa. USARPAC oversees Army activities in the entire Pacific region, where nearly 60 percent of the world's population lives in 41 independent nations.