Air Force general is second woman to lead a top US command

WASHINGTON – Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost connected Friday became lone the 2nd pistillate to pb 1 of the Pentagon's 11 alleged combatant commands, the multi-service organizations that spearhead U.S. subject operations astir the world.

At a change-of-command ceremonial astatine Scott Air Force Base successful Illinois, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin applauded Van Ovost's historical emergence to pb U.S. Transportation Command. He called her a “legend of a leader,” a aviator by grooming and a pivotal subordinate successful the airlift of tens of thousands of evacuees from Kabul successful August. She helped orchestrate the airlift arsenic commandant of the Air Force Air Mobility Command.

“We request each Jackie Van Ovost we tin get,” Austin, a retired Army general, said. “As she likes to say, ‘As young women looking up, it’s hard to beryllium what you can't see.' So General Van Ovost knows the value of breaking barriers."

Gen. Mark Milley, president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, applauded Van Ovost's extent of experience.

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“There is not a azygous idiosyncratic retired determination who is much prepared to pb TransCom than Jackie Van Ovost,” helium said.

Transportation Command is successful complaint of each aspects of planetary proscription for the military, including the question of cargo and unit by land, oversea and air. Its 89th Airlift Wing astatine Andrews Air Force Base successful Maryland operates craft for authorities VIP travel, including Air Force One for the president.

Van Ovost, a 1988 postgraduate of the Air Force Academy and a erstwhile vice manager of the Joint Staff astatine the Pentagon, took implicit Transportation Command for Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, who is retiring. The lone different pistillate to pb a U.S. combatant bid is Army Gen. Lori Robinson, present retired, who took complaint of U.S. Northern Command successful 2016. Army Gen. Laura Richardson is scheduled to instrumentality implicit U.S. Southern Command connected Oct. 29, succeeding Navy Adm. Craig Faller.

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