2 women await 4-star commands
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday announced the nominations of two female generals for promotion to four-star commands, hailing them as “two outstanding and eminently qualified warriors and patriots.”
The president nominated Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost of the Air Force to be commander of the United States Transportation Command, and Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson of the Army to be commander of the United States Southern Command. The nominations came on International Women’s Day, Biden noted in remarks at the White House.
“Once confirmed, they will become the second and third women in the history of the United States armed forces to lead combatant commands,” Biden said at the event, joined by Richardson, Van Ovost, Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“Each of these women have led careers demonstrating incomparable skill, integrity and duty to country, and at every step, they’ve also helped push open the doors of opportunity to women in our military, blazing the trail a little wider, a little brighter for all proud women following in their path and looking to their example,” Biden said.
According to The New York Times, Pentagon leaders held back the nominations of Van Ovost and Richardson until after the November presidential election for fear that then-President Donald Trump would reject them because they are women.
“They were chosen because they were the best officers for the jobs, and I didn’t want their promotions derailed because someone in the Trump White House saw that I recommended them or thought DOD [Department of Defense] was playing politics,” former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said last month. “This was not the case. They were the best qualified. We were doing the right thing.”
Van Ovost is commander of Air Mobility Command, and Richardson is commanding general of U.S. Army North. If the Senate confirms their nominations, they will follow retired Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson, the former commander of U.S. Northern Command from 2016 to 2018, the first woman to serve as a combatant commander since the posts’ establishment in 1986.