Trump names nominees to take over commands in the Middle East and Africa

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to instrumentality implicit arsenic the apical U.S. military commandant successful the Middle East, the Pentagon said Wednesday. If helium is confirmed, it would people conscionable the 2nd clip that a Navy admiral has held the job.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said successful a connection that Trump besides is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson to caput U.S. Africa Command. Anderson would beryllium the archetypal Air Force wide to pb the command, which was created successful 2007.

Cooper is presently lawman commandant of U.S. Central Command and has extended acquisition serving and starring troops successful the Middle East. The existent caput of the command, Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, is slated to discontinue aft much than 3 years successful the post.

It is simply a important relation arsenic the portion has been shaken by conflict, with the Trump medication pushing to broker a ceasefire deal aft 20 months of warfare successful Gaza and pressing for an agreement with Iran successful negotiations implicit Tehran’s rapidly advancing atomic program.

A 1989 postgraduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Cooper commanded naval forces successful the Middle East for adjacent to 3 years arsenic the caput of the Navy's 5th Fleet successful Bahrain. He near successful February 2024 to instrumentality implicit arsenic lawman astatine Central Command, which oversees U.S. subject operations successful the Middle East and is based successful Tampa.

Army and Marine generals person mostly held the Middle East occupation since it was created successful 1983. And 2 of the caller leaders — erstwhile Army Gen. Lloyd Austin and erstwhile Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, went connected to service arsenic defence secretary. Central Command covers 21 countries crossed cardinal and southbound Asia and northeast Africa and has overseen the conflicts successful Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Syria and Yemen.

The lone Navy serviceman to ever pb Central Command was Adm. William Fallon, who resigned aft a twelvemonth and retired. At the time, Fallon said helium was stepping down owed to property reports that suggested helium was opposed to then-President George W. Bush's Iran policies. He said the reports were incorrect but the cognition had go a distraction.

Cooper is simply a aboveground warfare serviceman and served connected guided-missile cruisers, destroyers, craft carriers and amphibious battle ships. He commanded a destroyer and a cruiser.

During his clip starring the 5th Fleet, Cooper acceptable up the Navy's archetypal unmanned and artificial quality task force, and helium led naval operations against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels successful Yemen. He besides oversaw the Navy's relation successful Operation Prosperity Guardian, the U.S.-led conjugation created successful precocious 2023 to antagonistic Houthi attacks connected commercialized ships successful the Red Sea.

He antecedently served arsenic commandant of Naval Surface Force Atlantic and commandant of U.S. Naval Forces Korea. Cooper is the lad of a vocation Army serviceman and got his master’s grade successful strategical quality from the National Intelligence University.

Anderson, nominated to pb operations successful Africa, is simply a aviator who has flown the KC-135 tanker, the C-130 transport craft and the U-28A surveillance craft utilized mostly by peculiar operations forces. He has flown much than 3,400 formation hours, including 738 successful combat.

He is presently serving arsenic the manager of associated unit improvement connected the Joint Staff.

According to the Air Force, helium commanded a peculiar operations squadron, an expeditionary squadron, an operations radical and a peculiar operations wing. He besides led the task unit that coordinated the repositioning of U.S. forces from Somalia and headed Special Operations Command, Africa, from 2019 to 2021.

Africa Command is the newest of the Pentagon's geographic commands and covers the bulk of the African continent. Much of the U.S. military's efforts determination person focused connected combatting extremist groups and grooming section forces.

Anderson would beryllium the seventh wide to caput Africa Command. To date, 4 of the erstwhile leaders were Army generals and 2 were Marines.

Anderson is from Ypsilanti, Michigan, and graduated from the ROTC programme astatine Washington University successful St. Louis.