"Gen. William F. "Buck" Kernan became the first Army general to head NATO's Allied Command Atlantic when he took the reins of leadership from Adm. Harold W. Gehman during a change of command ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt Sept. 5 in Norfolk, Va. "Along with becoming the supreme allied commander, Atlantic, Kernan became the commander in chief of the recently redesignated U.S. Joint Forces Command. "Buck Kernan is one of the nation's best rapid reactors -- as the leader of the 75th Ranger Regiment and most recently as the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, America's premier rapid reaction force," said Secretarty of Defense William S. Cohen."