Samuel Paparo

Navy Adm. Sam Paparo, Paparo assumed duties as Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in May 2024. He is the 27th commander of the nation’s oldest and largest combatant command. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command includes 380,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians, Coast Guardsmen and Department of Defense civilians, and it is responsible for all U.S. military activities in the Indo-Pacific — covering 36 nations, 14 time zones, and 60% of the world’s population.

Before this position, his most recent assignment was as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, from May 2021 to April 2024.

His operational command tours at sea have included missions to Japan and Afghanistan. He also served on exchange duty with the U.S. Air Force, flying the F-15C Eagle with the 71st Fighter Squadron and deploying multiple times to Saudi Arabia and Iceland. In joint operational service, he was battle director at the Combined Air and Space Operations Center, in Qatar.

On shore, he has served on the staff of the Naval Air Forces commander as training, readiness and requirements officer; as commanding officer of VFA-106; and on the staff of the chief of naval operations, as branch head. He served as executive assistant to the commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command, and then to the 31st chief of naval operations.

He was director of operations, J3, for the U.S. Central Command, and he was commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet/Combined Maritime Forces.

Paparo, a native of Morton, Pennsylvania, graduated from Villanova University and was commissioned in 1987. He is the son of a former enlisted Marine and the grandson of a World War II enlisted sailor. He earned a master’s degree in international studies from Old Dominion University and a master’s in systems analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School. A U.S. Naval aviator, he is a graduate of the Top Gun program and has flown over 6,000 hours in the F-14, F-15 and F/A-18, and he has done over a thousand carrier landings.