New commander at Army Cyber Command

FORT BELVOIR, Virginia -- Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone took command Friday of U.S. Army Cyber Command and Second Army at a time when the Army’s newest command is at the forefront of the nation’s effort to prevent a “cyber Pearl Harbor.”

“Army Cyber is racing the clock literally every day to stay ahead of adversaries in cyberspace,” said the Army’s top officer, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, at the change-of-command ceremony here on Friday.

“The first shots of the next actual war will likely be fired in cyberspace and likely with devastating effect,” Milley said at the event. “Many analysts and senior government officials have said their greatest fear is a cyber Pearl Harbor. Paul Nakasone’s father was at Pearl Harbor as a 14-year-old young man. We never want to see that day happen again.”

Nakasone returns to Army Cyber Command, where he was deputy commanding general for operations before leaving two years ago to become commander of the Cyber National Mission Force at U.S. Cyber Command.

He took command from his predecessor, Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon, who was at the helm of Army Cyber Command for more than three years during a time Cardon characterized as one of “exponential” growth.

At the ceremony, Cardon said his successor’s “knowledge and experience in cyberspace is unmatched.”

Milley called Nakasone a “superstar.”

“You’re absolutely the right leader at the right time, and you’re at the right place, and I’m so proud of you,” Milley said to Nakasone during the ceremony, calling him a “superb intelligence officer.”

“Paul Nakasone has absolutely the right credentials to lead Army cyber to the next chapter,” Milley said to the audience. “You are witnessing a superstar taking this command.”