Air Force Fighter Pilot Named Next Joint Chiefs Chairman
May 25, 2023 12:26PM AKDT
President Joe Biden shakes hands with U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., after nominating Brown as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force fighter pilot tapped to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff got his call sign by ejecting from a burning F-16 fighter jet high above the Florida Everglades and falling into the watery sludge below.
It was January 1991, and then-Capt.
CQ Brown Jr. had just enough time in his parachute above alligator-full wetlands.
He landed in the muck, which coated his body.
That’s how the man nominated to be the country’s next top military officer got his call sign: “Swamp Thing.”
President Joe Biden announced he was nominating Brown for the chairman’s job during a Rose Garden event on Thursday.
