USS Theodore Roosevelt during a combat deployment to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Assigned as Commander, Carrier Group Eight in 1995, he deployed to the Mediterranean as Commander, Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group and commanded Battle Force Sixth Fleet (CTF 60) during NATOs combat Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia. Admiral Fallon served as Commander, U.S. Second Fleet and Commander, Striking Fleet Atlantic from November 1997 to September 2000. Shore duties included assignment as Aide and Flag Lieutenant to the Commander, Fleet Air Jacksonville, and to the staffs of Commander, Reconnaissance Attack Wing One; Commander, Operational Test Force, and Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He has served as Deputy Director for Operations, Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and as Deputy Director, Aviation Plans and Requirements on the Staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C. His first flag officer assignment was with NATO as Assistant Chief of Staff, Plans and Policy for Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. He was then assigned as Deputy and Chief of Staff, U.S. Atlantic Fleet followed by assignment as Deputy Commander in Chief and Chief of Staff, U.S. Atlantic Command. Nominated for his fourth star, he became the 31st Vice Chief of Naval Operations in October 2000. In February 2001, while serving as Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Fallon was given Presidential special envoy status and dispatched to Japan to apologize for the collision between the U.S. Navy submarine USS Greeneville and the Japanese fisheries training vessel Ehime Maru. The accident killed nine Japanese crewmembers, including four high school students. Fallon, along with Ambassador Tom Foley, met with family members of the victims at the Ambassador's official residence in Tokyo and in the Ehime Maru's home port of Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, bowing deeply and expressing regret on behalf of the United States and President George W. Bush. His deferential show of contrition to the families, carried out in front of news cameras, was widely credited with defusing an incident that could have damaged U.S.-Japan relations. In 2002, he told the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Committee that the military should be exempted from certain environmental laws because the laws affected the military's ability to conduct operations at its bases. In February 2003, he authorized the Navy's Task Force Uniform initiative that led to the creation of the Navy Working Uniform and Navy