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Charles Brown is currently Chief of Staff of the Air Force

Photo: Arnd Wiegmann / REUTERS

There may be a change of leadership in the General Staff of the US Armed Forces. President Joe Biden wants to nominate Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Brown to head the advisory board. That's according to Biden's schedule.

The four-star General Brown is to succeed Mark Milley. The Chief of the General Staff is a military adviser to the president and directs the strategic planning of the Ministry of Defense.

Brown is a pilot – and has experience in the Pacific

Brown has been Chief of Staff of the Air Force since 2020 and was nominated for this position by then-President Donald Trump. He is an experienced pilot with thousands of flight hours and combat experience.

Between 2014 and 2015, Brown was stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Rhineland-Palatinate. From 2018 to 2020, he was Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Forces in the Pacific, making him an expert on the region, where there are increasing tensions with China.

Incumbent Milley – once deployed as a soldier in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia-Herzegovina – had also been nominated for the post by Trump and has been Chief of Staff since 2019. His term ends in September.

Does a senator stand in the way?

The U.S. Senate still has to approve the appointment after the official nomination. As the Reuters news agency reports, there could be problems with this. According to the report, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville has been blocking military nominations since February because he accuses the Department of Defense of covering the travel expenses of army personnel in the case of abortions.

The White House urged Tuberville on Wednesday to abandon his blockade stance. This endangers national security.

Brown is the first black man to head a branch of the U.S. military. Before him, the current Secretary of Defense, Colin Powell, was another Black Chief of Staff. After the death of the African-American George Floyd in a brutal police operation almost three years ago, Brown had caused a stir with an emotional video. In it, he had talked about his own experiences in the army.

"I think of my career in the Air Force, where I was often the only African-American in my squadron, or as a senior officer, the only African-American in the room." He often had the impression that he had to "work twice as hard" as others to prove to his superiors that prejudices about blacks were wrong.

fek/dpa/Reuters/AFP