Navy admirals are ascending to the most coveted and important global commands in the U.S. military, gaining unprecedented influence over how the Pentagon fights and what weapons it buys.
The appointment of a Navy officer to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, as well as Naval appointments to commands in the Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and terrorist-fighting special operations, signals that the Bush administration now sees the sea service as providing the best strategic thinkers to counter radical Islam.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates noted the importance of brain power when he announced Friday that Marine Gen. Peter Pace would be replaced as chairman by Navy Adm. Michael Mullen.
“I think he is a very smart strategic thinker,” Gates said of Mullen.
The Pentagon’s war fighting is centered on nine combatant commands, five of which are key. They are the ones that make battle plans and wage war overseas. Of the five, four are or soon will be commanded by four-star Navy admirals.
“I think at the end of the day, people are disappointed with Army generals whose only approach to solving problems has been brute force,” retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor said.
Of the Navy’s rise, Macgregor told The Examiner, “Navy culture is very different from the rest of the armed services. Naval officers are accustomed to making independent decisions and to taking initiative.”
Four-star combatant commanders have grown in influence since the 1980s, when landmark legislation defined the chain of command as running from the president to the defense secretary to global commanders.
In addition to Mullen’s rise to the chairman’s post:
>> Adm. William Fallon replaced Army Gen. John Abizaid as head of U.S. Central Command, the hub of the ground war against al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan.
>> Adm. James Stavridis now heads U.S. Southern Command, another post historically held by a ground commander. SouthCom has grown in importance with the emergence of anti-U.S. leaders in South America.
>> Vice Adm. Eric Olson is set to be the first admiral to run U.S. Special Operations Command, the global command in the war on terror.
>> Adm. Timothy Keating is leading U.S. Pacific Command. Next to CentCom, PaCom is the most important area strategically, acting as a check against China, North Korea and extremist Muslim movements in Asia.
Of the five overseas war-fighting combatant commands, an Army general holds just one: NATO. Army four-star generals do, however, fill two important positions that are subordinate to combatant commanders – leading forces in South Korea and Iraq.
