Friday, August 05, 2011

Senate confirms new US Military Leadership

The United States Senate cleared a staggering backlog of routine military officer promotions and confirmed pending presidential nominations for some top officers this week.


Chief among these was the confirmation of General Martin E. Dempsey [right] as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is now confirmed to replace retiring Admiral Mike Mullen in September as the US Military's top dog.


The Senate also confirmed General Raymond T. Odierno to replace Dempsey as Chief of Staff of the Army. Odierno oversaw the disestablishment of US Joint Forces Command at a ceremony yesterday in Suffolk, Va. shuttering a 6000-strong command on the advice of former SecDef Robert Gates to save millions of dollars.

Admiral Jonathan Greenert was confirmed as the next Chief of Naval Operations to replace retiring Admiral Gary Roughead in September and Air Force General William Fraser III as Commander, U.S. Transportation Command.

The most urgent appointment was that of Admiral James A. "Sandy" Winnefeld Jr., who not 48 hours after his Senate confirmation, was sworn in as the 9th Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday. This followed the vacation of the post by General James E. "Hoss" Cartwright [left] who had his retirement ceremony at the 8th & I, Marine Barracks in Washington D.C. on Wednesday after almost 40 years of service.

Admiral Winnefeld was replaced as Commander of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD by the first Army officer to hold the position, General Charles Jacoby who also received confirmation [and a fourth star] on Tuesday.

Other appointments were not so urgent but were also confirmed before the Senate recessed until after the Labour Day weekend in September. They included confirmations made after approval for UNETIDA appointments were granted by the UN Security Council in July. U.S. Air Force Colonel “Rockets” Thompson, was confirmed as Missile Defence Commander [Northern] replacing Brigadier General “Ballista” Jackson who will now retire in November. U.S Marine Colonel "Whopper" Creedon was confirmed as Director of Intelligence and will assume duties in December. Creedon will be replaced by U.S. Navy Captain “Barnacle” Strakovski as Director of Special Operations.

The 2500+ confirmations were approved by voice vote and without discussion. They put in place one of the single-largest changes in decades in U.S. military leadership that began with Leon Panetta's appointment as Secretary of Defence on July 1.

5 comments:

Former Grunt said...

Ballista Jackson is retiring? But I thought he was in line to be the next Commander of UNETIDA?
-Christ! What does it say about me when I can remember these people?

Civilian Overseer said...

U.S Marine Colonel "Whopper" Creedon was confirmed as Director of Intelligence

there's irony. ;)

Major General Creedon said...

@ Grunt: Jackson is indeed retiring. He was only going to stay on if he got the UNETIDA Commander assignment but a former Russian Cosmonaut is all but confirmed for that job now.

@ Civvy: Oh it's not all that bad Civvy. Think of the abuse of powers of surveillance I’ll have at my hands...

Civilian Overseer said...

Colonel, I dread to imagine what you'll get up to.

I thought that you would have been confirmed as Director of Counter-Intelligence.

Master Guns said...

They let you fly again didn't they Colonel?