Air Force fighter pilot tapped by Biden to be next Joint Chiefs chairman has history of firsts

WASHINGTON — 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. He landed in the muck, which coated his body and got “in his boots and everything.” Which is how the nominee to be the country’s next top military officer got his call sign: “Swamp Thing.” President Joe Biden announced he was nominating Brown during a Rose Garden event on Thursday, praising him as an “unflappable and highly effective leader.” If confirmed, Brown, now a four-star general and the Air Force chief, would replace Army Gen. Mark Milley, whose term ends in October. To this day, his core tenets are to “execute at a high standard, personally and professionally,” Brown said this month at an Air Force Association conference in Colorado. “He’s not prone to blurt out something without some serious thought in his own mind, some serious kind of balancing of the opportunities or options,” said retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, who knows Brown from when Brown worked for him as a member of the Air Staff. Brown saw that the school “required a different approach and attitude,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Bill Rew.