Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has tapped a retiring colonel to be the next principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.
Steve Warren, well known for his blunt comments to reporters on the state of operations overseas who previously served as head of Pentagon Press Operations and chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, will hang up his uniform to serve as a civilian in the post.
Sources say he signed his retirement papers from the U.S. Army Friday morning.
Warren was popular among Pentagon reporters for his straight shooting and depth of knowledge of military history and strategy.
“We spell it this way: Quebec Alpha Yankee Yankee Alpha Romeo Alpha Hotel. If you don’t know your phonetic alphabet, you need to learn it, if you’re going to work in the Pentagon,” Warren said last year, schooling a Pentagon reporter on the spelling of the first Iraqi city bombed by newly deployed B-52 heavy bombers.
And in April last year: “We do not want to destroy cities, that’s not our goal. We don’t want to harm civilians. That’s not our goal. So we’re going to do everything we can to ensure that doesn’t happen,. But at the end of the day we have to understand there is a reason they say ‘war is hell.’ ”
The Pentagon has made no official announcement yet, but Warren has already taken up residence in a prestigious E-ring outer office, and has been spotted in the halls wearing a civilian business suit.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated Warren’s new title.
