After a four-year tenure, Chairman of the U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley retired on Friday, September 29, 2023.
In a ceremony at Joint Base-Myer Henderson Hall near Washington, Milley handed over command to Air Force Chief, General Charles Q. Brown.
Brown becomes the 21st Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
U.S President, Joe Biden, who spoke at the ceremony, lauded Milley’s staunch defense of the Constitution, which “has always been Mark’s North Star.”
Biden said that Milley has been a steady hand guiding the military during one of the most complex national security environments.
Calling Milley “unflinching in the face of danger,” Biden said he “once ran across a bridge booby-trapped with mines to stop two battle tanks evacuating wounded troops from driving across it.”
“Mark, your partnership has been invaluable to me,” Biden said.
Biden said Milley served in war zones as part of his long military service and had a “chest full of medals to show for it.”
U.S Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin was also present at the ceremony.
In his remarks, Austin recalled a time during the Iraq war when he and Milley were serving in Baghdad and their vehicle was damaged when it was hit by an improvised explosive device while en route to a hospital to see a wounded soldier.
“‘Has this happened to you before?'” Austin said he asked Milley. “And he said, oh yeah, I’ve been blown up about five times now,” Austin added.
Milley’s tenure included the killing of Islamic State head Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in 2019 and providing military assistance to Ukraine’s defense against the invasion by Russia in February 2022.
Milley’s four-year term as Chairman ends at midnight Saturday, September 30, 2023 and Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown takes over Sunday, October 1, 2023.
Brown is only the second Black officer to become Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after Colin Powell three decades ago.
Brown told the audience that his goal will be to deter aggression and “fight when called upon.” He said the U.S. military “must focus on modernizing” with new concepts and approaches.
The promotion of Brown, a former fighter pilot with experience in the Pacific, meant Black Americans will hold the top two positions at the Pentagon for the first time – a major milestone for an institution that is diverse in its lower ranks but largely white and male at the top.
Biden appointed Austin to become the first Black U.S. secretary of defense, the top civilian position at the Pentagon.
“We Don’t Take An Oath To An Individual”
At the farewell ceremony, Gen. Mark Milley issued a reminder about the role of the armed forces, one that seemed particularly directed at former President Donald Trump.
“We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion, we don’t take an oath to a King or a Queen, or to a tyrant or a dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.”
Gen. Mark Milley
“We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it,” Milley added.
As Chairman, Milley pushed back against a host of Trump’s plans, including demands to pull all troops out of Iraq and Syria and his desire to put active-duty troops on Washington’s streets to counter racial protests.
Last week, the former President and current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination claimed, without providing evidence, that Milley had committed treason. “In times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on September 22, 2023.
Milley disclosed in an interview that he has taken safety precautions for himself and his family.
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