WASHINGTON — President Biden is expected to nominate top Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown to become the second-ever black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to US officials familiar with the matter — but Senate confirmation could be tricky.
If the 61-year-old Brown is confirmed, he would replace the current Joint Chiefs boss, Army Gen. Mark Milley — who has held the post since October 2019 and is retiring after a 43-year military career.
Former President Donald Trump nominated Brown to his current role as Air Force chief of staff in 2020, making him the first black person to serve as the top officer in any US military branch.
That year, as race riots rocked the country in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Brown recorded a video describing the plight he had faced in life and in the service that went viral among the military community.
“I’m thinking about wearing the same flight suit — with the same wings on my chest as my peers — and then being questioned by another military member: ‘Are you a pilot?’” Brown said in the video. “I’m thinking about being a captain at the [officers’ club] with my squadron and being told by other African Americans that I wasn’t ‘black enough’ since I was spending more time with my squadron than with them.”
In his new role, Brown would bring experience confronting some of the top threats facing the nation.
Before assuming command of the Air Force, he led Pacific Air Forces, which directs the service’s operations confronting China in the western Pacific.
Retired Marine Corps Major Gen. Arnold Punaro, who served as staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1986 when the modern Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman position was created, called Brown the “perfect nominee … at this point in history with a world more dangerous and unstable than even the peak of the Cold War.”
“[Brown] embodies both the joint and service perspective, but especially helpful will be his deep knowledge and experience in the Indo-Pacific theater — the key to this ‘decisive decade,'” Punaro said in a statement to The Post. “We have not yet made the needed adjustments to deal with the threat posed by China.
“As Chairman, Gen. Brown will be in a position to drive the joint force and joint operations to deal with the threats posed not only by China but also Russia, Iran, and North Korea,” he added.
In his new position, Brown would oversee the military branch chiefs and ensure that all military forces are working together toward common goals.
“Gen. Brown will be respectful and inclusive of the viewpoints of the other Joint Chiefs and he will pay careful attention to the requirements and contingency plans of the Combatant Commanders, who report directly to the Secretary of Defense,” Punaro went on.
However, Brown may face an uphill battle for Senate confirmation once his nomination is announced. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has single-handedly blocked nearly 200 DOD nominations since March in protest of new Pentagon policies that reimburse and provide paid leave to service members who travel to receive an abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June.
A bipartisan group of seven former US defense secretaries on Thursday wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), urging them to “lift the blanket hold and promptly vot[e] to confirm these uniformed nominees.”
“The current hold that has been in place now for several weeks is preventing key leaders from
assuming important, senior command and staff positions around the world,” they said. “Some are unable to take important command positions, such as leading the 5th Fleet in Bahrain and the 7th Fleet in
the Pacific, which are critical to checking Iranian and Chinese aggression, respectively.”
The signatories — William Perry, William Cohen, Robert Gates, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, Jim Mattis and Mark Esper — said holding up confirmation votes “at a time of enormous geopolitical uncertainty sends the wrong message to our adversaries and could weaken our deterrence.”
“Moreover, if this blanket hold is not lifted, nearly 80 three- and four-star commanders [such as Milley] who are ending their terms in the coming months will not be able to be replaced,” they wrote.
Though they said they “appreciate that Senators can have sincere and legitimate concerns about a Pentagon policy,” including as it may relate to broader domestic or social issues, they urged lawmakers to use other means — such as new legislation or the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act — as “leverage” to achieve their goals.
“We believe placing a hold on all uniformed nominees risks turning military officers into political pawns, holding them responsible for a policy decision made by their civilian leaders,” the signatories wrote.
Punaro, who said Brown “exceeds the [original] intent envisioned [for the role] with his qualifications, experience, style, and deliberate thinking,” added he was confident the nomination would prevail.
“The Senate Armed Services will conduct a thorough and complete confirmation process and hearing,” he said, “and I fully expect General Brown to be confirmed by the Senate on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis — once he leaps over any procedural hurdles currently in place for senior military nominations.”
The late Colin Powell was the first black person to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, holding the post from 1989 to 1993.
