Eric Chewning, a top Defense Department official who answers to the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer Ellen Lord, has been named chief of staff to acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
Chewning currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy. He is a Bronze Star Medal recipient, first enlisted in the U.S. Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 before attending officer candidate school to become an Army intelligence officer. As Shanahan’s chief of staff, Chewning will advise and counsel Shanahan on Pentagon matters.
Since joining the Pentagon in 2017, Chewning has reported to Lord, who has at times clashed with Shanahan. For example, Shanahan threw Lord and her office under the bus in October after he denied a proposed change to managing industry cash flow at the Pentagon.
Chewning is replacing former Defense Department chief of staff Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, who announced Saturday he was stepping down from his post and would return to the private sector. Sweeney had been tapped for the position in January 2017 by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who worked with Sweeney when he led U.S. Central Command.
Mattis resigned in December after President Trump announced that troops would be scaled back from Syria, and Shanahan has subsequently been leading the agency in an acting capacity. Trump said late last month that Shanahan may remain in the position for the “for a long time.”
