“My decision to appoint @usairforce General Charles Brown as the USA’s first-ever African American military service chief has now been approved by the Senate,” President Donald Trump tweeted. “A historic day for America! Excited to work even more closely with Gen. Brown, who is a Patriot and Great Leader!”

Brown currently serves as the U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander and the air component commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. The U.S. Pacific Air Forces is responsible for Air Force activities in a command that supports more than 46,000 Airmen serving principally in Japan, South Korea, Hawaii, Alaska and Guam.

“It is an absolute privilege for Sharene and I to represent our Airmen and families and we remain committed to serving them each day with the unwavering support that will ensure we remain the greatest Air Force in the world,” Brown said in March.

A command pilot with more than 2,900 flying hours in the F-16 Fighting Falcon, including 130 combat hours, Brown held key roles in operations against Libya and in the air war against the Islamic State group.

Across his career, Brown has commanded a fighter squadron, two fighter wings, and U.S. Air Forces Central Command. Prior to his current assignment, he served as the deputy commander, U.S. Central Command. He also held other senior positions that will serve him well as the service’s chief military officer. They include serving as commandant of the Air Force Weapons School from 2005 to 2007 and, from March 2014 to June 2015, as director, Operations, Strategic Deterrence, and Nuclear Integration, Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

He also served as Aide-de-Camp to the 15th Chief of Staff, Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman, and as the Executive Action Group Director for the 22nd Secretary of the Air Force, Michael B. Donley and 19th Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz. He was a National Defense Fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

“I’ll tell you, I was just going to be an engineer,” Brown told Texas Tech in 2019. “I was just going to do four years in the Air Force, and then get out. But when I went to summer camp for ROTC and rode in an airplane, I decided I wanted to become a pilot. Based on that opportunity and experience from ROTC at Texas Tech, and being the cadet corps commander the first semester of my senior year, all of that coming together helped shape the opportunity for me to get to go fly fighters.”