Sean D. Naylor
December 22, 2020, 12:14 PM
On June 29, 2010, Gen. David Petraeus was reaching the end of one of the most hectic weeks of his extraordinary career.
After three lengthy combat tours in Iraq, the Army four-star was 20 months into what would normally be a three-year stint as head of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla. But a few days earlier, President Barack Obama had asked him to immediately step down from his job in order to take charge of the coalition’s military operations in Afghanistan.
The job switch represented a slight demotion Central Command’s area of operations included Afghanistan, so Petraeus was moving down a notch in the chain of command but it was not intended as a slight. The president had just fired his commander in Kabul, Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and needed another four-star general to replace him. Petraeus had agreed to step into the breach.
USNI News
Biden Says Lloyd Austin ‘Right Person for This Job’
December 9, 2020 5:50 PM
Outgoing commander U.S. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin makes remarks during the U.S. Central Command change of command ceremony at Macdill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fl., March 30, 2016. US Army Photo
President-elect Joe Biden called retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin III “the right person for this job” as the 28th secretary of defense in an appearance Wednesday in Wilmington, Del.
Acknowledging that Austin will need a congressional waiver to serve as the civilian head of the Pentagon, Biden asked Congress to act, “just as they did for Jim Mattis” when he was selected to be President Donald Trump’s secretary of defense, and grant the waiver.