U.S. Senate Approves General Charles Brown Jr., First Black Service Chief
The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate recently made history in a very big way.
The Senate has confirmed General Charles Brown Jr. as the Air Force’s chief of staff, making Brown the first African-American chief of staff of a U.S. military branch.
Brown is now the second black man to sit on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, following retired Army Gen. Colin Powell.
Senators voted 98-0 to approve Brown.
President Donald Trump appointed Brown to the position and said before his confirmation that the approval of Brown marked “a historic day for America.”
“Excited to work even more closely with Gen. Brown, who is a Patriot and Great Leader!” Trump said.
Vice President Mike Pence presided over the vote in a rare appearance in the Senate, saying in a statement that America was going to “witness an incredible moment in American history when the Senate votes to confirm the first-ever Black service chief, U.S. Air Force General Charles Q. Brown.”
“That significance is why Vice President Pence considers it so important to preside over today’s vote,” the spokesman said.
The Epoch Times reported:
Before being approved as chief of staff for the Air Force, Brown served as commander of the Pacific Air Forces, which is responsible for Air Force activities spread over half the globe.
Brown was commissioned in 1984 as a distinguished graduate of the ROTC program at Texas Tech University, according to his military biography. Brown served in a variety of positions, including an assignment to the U.S. Air Force Weapons School as an F-16 Fighting Falcon instructor. Other roles included secretary of the Air Force and aide-de-camp to the chief of staff of the force.
Brown spent more than 2,900 hours flying as a command pilot.
to the U.S. Air Force Weapons School as an F-16 Fighting Falcon instructor. Other roles included secretary of the Air Force and aide-de-camp to the chief of staff of the force.
Brown spent more than 2,900 hours flying as a command pilot.
In an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, Brown expressed support for modernizing fighting capabilities and expanding to 386 squadrons.
“I am committed to the Air Force achieving irreversible momentum towards implementation of the National Defense Strategy and an integrated and more lethal joint force,” Brown told senators in Washington.
Outlining his position on how he’d approach heading the Air Force, Brown said: “To compete, deter and win, we will need to generate combat power faster than our adversaries.”
“If confirmed, I am an advocate for early and constant collaboration between operators, acquisition professionals, and industry partners to unleash innovation and spiral development so that the warfighter has access to the most capable and state of the art assets, sooner than later,” he added later, agreeing with Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) about the need to modernize land-based nuclear deterrents.
The GOP-controlled U.S. Senate has been very busy recently.
On Thursday, the Senate confirmed conservative filmmaker Michael Pack by a vote of 53 to 38 to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
By a vote of 51 to 40, the Senate confirmed Brian Miller, a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, to serve as the inspector general who will oversee money distributed as part of the $2 trillion economic rescue law.
Last Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic resolution to condemn Trump for the use of gas and rubber bullets against protesters near the White House.
