President Joe Biden has named Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Quinton Brown Jr., a Black Airforce fighter pilot as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs Staff. He will succeed American General Mark Milley, according to multiple reports. 

General Milley is scheduled to retire in October.

If confirmed by the Senate, Brown would become the first 

Air Force general to hold the position since Gen. Richard Myers stepped down in 2005—and only the fifth airman in the 73-year history of the job.

Brown, an F-16 fighter pilot, would bring nearly four decades of military service to the nation’s top military job, including stints as a Pacific and Middle East commander. 

He is also the second Black service member to serve as Chairman, following Army General Colin Powell, who served as chairman from 1989 to 1993.

After he was commissioned in 1984, Brown served as an instructor at and later still was the commander of the U.S. Air Force Weapons School. He then led fighter pilots in South Korea and Italy before taking on key positions in major commands at the heart of U.S. national security. 

In 2014, Brown was the director of operations for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration for U.S. Air Forces in Europe, shortly after Russia invaded Crimea; from 2015 to 2016, he commanded U.S. Air Forces Central as the U.S. and its allies conducted an air campaign against the Islamic State group; and from 2018 to 2020, he led Pacific Air Forces just as the U.S. shifted its strategic focus from counterterrorism in the Middle East to deter China in the Pacific. 

Omar Nelson Bradley was the first Joint Staff chairman from 1949 to 1953.

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brown will face both social and strategic challenges, as the military not only strives to stay ahead of China but also struggles to attract new talent. Though the chairman has no operational command authority over the armed forces, Brown would be the top military adviser to President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. 

Brown is a native Texan. He earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, in 1984.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff consist of the Chairman, the Vice Chairman, the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Commandant of the Marine Corp, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, and the Chief of Space Operations.