Operation Northern Watch replaces Provide Comfort, as US aircrews continue enforcing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq. It ends March 17, 2003.
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr. assumed leadership of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, succeeding Navy Adm. John Aquilino at a change of command ceremony, urging action amid China's “increasing intrusive and expansionist claims,” on May 3