The Senate has cleared the last slate of 11 four-star general and flag officers whose nominations had been blocked by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R, Ala.), for months.
On Tuesday, the Senate used a voice vote to confirm the last group of officers after Tuberville lifted hold following pressure from fellow Republicans.
The confirmation vote for the last group follows a mass confirmation of 425 general and flag officers on Dec. 5, after Tuberville again relented and lifted his blanket hold on the Senate confirming the military nominees via unanimous consent. Tubervile had placed holds on the confirmations over a Pentagon policy that allowed out-of-state travel for abortions and other reproductive services.
The confirmed officers are:
Air Force
Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, nominated to be head of Air Combat Command
Lt. Gen. Kevin B. Schneider, nominated to be commander of Pacific Air Forces
Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, nominated to be head of U.S. Northern Command
Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, nominated to be head of U.S. Cyber Command
Lt. Gen. James C. Slife, nominated to be Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force
Army
Lt. Gen. James J. Mingus, nominated to be Vice Chief of Staff of the Army
Navy
Vice Adm. James W. Kilby, nominated to be Vice Chief of Naval Operations
Vice Adm. Stephen T. Koehler, nominated to be head of U.S. Pacific Fleet
Vice Adm. William J. Houston, nominated to be director of the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program
Space Force
Lt. Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, nominated to be Vice Chief of Space Operations
Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, to be head of U.S. Space Command.
Current U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, Adm. Sam Paparo, is nominated to take command of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command but his nomination has not been reported out of the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to Politico.
While the three-star nominees were confirmed earlier this month, several lines of promotion in the Navy had been stalled due to the four-star blockages. For example, deputy U.S. Central Command commander Lt. Gen. Gregory Guillot couldn’t move forward to take command of U.S. Northern Command, preventing current U.S. 5th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Brad Cooper from taking the number two role at CENTCOM. If Cooper couldn’t move, Rear Adm. George Wikoff, current vice director of the Joint Staff, couldn’t advance to take command of U.S. 5th Fleet and so on.
Likewise, holding up the promotion of Vice Adm. Bill Houston to be the director of Naval Reactors blocked Rear Adm. Robert Gaucher from becoming commander of Naval Submarine Forces cascading down to other command positions in the submarine force.
Tuesday’s confirmations clear a patchwork of fill-in commanders and deputies who were leading major Navy commands from its chief shipbuilder to the commander of its fleets in the Middle East and the Western Pacific, to the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.
USNI News understands the bulk of the change of commands will occur early next month.
