US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaks during a joint press conference with Cambodian Minister of National Defense General Tea Banh at the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Retreat on November 16, 2012 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. (Photo by Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images)
MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is headed to South Florida Monday to take part in a leadership change at U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Doral.
Panetta’s top military advisor Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly is taking over Monday at Miami-based Southcom. He’ll be replacing retiring Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser. Kelly is also being promoted to a four-star general.
Also scheduled to speak at the ceremony is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.
Aides say Panetta will not take any questions from the media.
A flyover by F-16 fighter jets out of the Homestead Air Reserve Base is also set for the afternoon ceremony, along with music by soldiers from a Florida National Guard band based in Pembroke Pines.
Southcom oversees U.S. military interests and operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
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