WASHINGTON — Gen. CQ Brown stared directly into the camera.
It had been several days since Minneapolis law enforcement officials murdered George Floyd. Protests and civil unrest over racism and inequality had spread across the country.
Brown, then commander of Pacific Air Forces, was days away from a Senate vote that might determine whether he could be the Air Force’s next chief of staff — and change into the primary Black person to function a service chief in U.S. history.
He began to explain “how full I’m with emotion” for Floyd and lots of other Black individuals who suffered similar fates. Known for his reserved countenance, his lower lip quivered — but just for an fast, before his usual demeanor returned.
He was initially “on the fence” about what he should do or say. His youngest son Ross was also struggling. And when Ross called his father and mother, Sharene Brown, to unburden himself, he asked his father an issue that crystallized the matter.
“ ‘Hey Dad, what’s Pacific Air Forces going to say?’ ” Brown told NPR. “Because the commander of Pacific Air Forces, that was form of code to me of: Dad, what are you going to say?”
Over the subsequent few days, Brown made a video the Air Force ultimately posted within the early hours of June 5, 2020. In it, he spoke for nearly five minutes about his experience as a Black man in the USA and its military. It was a rare commentary amongst senior leaders — and for somebody still awaiting Senate confirmation.
“I’m occupied with wearing the identical flight suit, with the identical wings on my chest as my peers, after which being questioned by one other military member: ‘Are you a pilot?’ ” Brown said. “I’m occupied with how I sometimes felt my comments were perceived to represent the African American perspective, when it was just my perspective informed by being African American. … I’m occupied with being a captain on the [officers’ club] with my squadron and being told by other African Americans that I wasn’t ‘Black enough’ since I used to be spending more time with my squadron than with them.”
In his video, Brown also challenged himself to fulfill the historic moment, which he called a “heavy burden.”
“I can’t fix centuries of racism in our country, nor can I fix a long time of discrimination which will have impacted members of our Air Force,” Brown said. But he also thought “about how I could make improvements personally, professionally and institutionally, so that every one airmen each today and tomorrow appreciate the worth of diversity and might serve in an environment where they will reach their full potential.”
The video went viral online and brought the nation’s debate over racial injustice squarely into the military community.
“That took loads of guts,” retired Air Force Gen. Larry Spencer, a former vice chief of staff who can also be Black, told Defense News. “He hadn’t been confirmed yet. He made a video that was very heartfelt, knowing probably some people weren’t going to prefer it. … It was something that needed to be said on the time.”
Brown, 60, could soon have one other historic opportunity: He has reportedly been chosen to change into the subsequent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Two sources confirmed to Defense News that President Joe Biden has chosen Brown to succeed Army Gen. Mark Milley because the nation’s top military officer. On May 4, Politico, the Recent York Times and others reported Biden had chosen Brown over Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger for the highest job, but several outlets added it was unclear when the president would announce the pick. A National Security Council spokesperson said in an email Friday that the ultimate decision on a md has not yet been made.
For months, observers have considered Brown a front-runner to be the subsequent chairman. And in a March 7 speech, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall hinted Brown is under serious consideration for a brand new role.
“Gen. Brown is an exceptional leader with broad strategic perspectives, and a thoughtful, measured approach to any problem set,” Kendall said. “I might hate to lose such an amazing partner. But there’s a likelihood someone who outranks me considerably might see those self same attributes in CQ.”
Brown is widely respected by service leaders and outdoors observers as one among the military’s most thoughtful and transformative leaders. In his two-and-a-half years leading the Air Force, Brown sought to rapidly reshape its structure, move off old and outdated aircraft ill-suited for a future war, and alter how the service prepares for a possible war against China — an effort he calls “Speed up Change or Lose.”
If nominated and confirmed, Brown could be essentially the most senior rating member of the U.S. armed forces. He would advise the president on military matters, including the defense of Taiwan. Some within the Pentagon imagine China will invade the island, which Beijing considers a rogue province, throughout the decade.
Brown would also collect top military leaders’ opinions on matters resembling strategy, operations and budgets with a purpose to present a spread of recommendation to the president.
During the last yr, the present chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has rallied allied nations and their militaries to support Ukraine, which is fighting off a Russian invasion. Brown would surely proceed Milley’s efforts supporting Ukraine, if confirmed for the position.
In interviews with Defense News, former military leaders who served with Brown said his years in command in Asia, Europe and the Middle East prepared him well to advise the president and guide the military because it transforms.
Brown’s quiet and thoughtful personality, sharp intellect and professionalism, they are saying, makes him the best person to advise Biden on military matters and construct relationships with other nations’ military leaders all over the world.
Brown’s style can also be markedly different from that of the blunt, tough-talking Milley.
A talented F-16 pilot with greater than 3,000 flying hours, including 130 hours in combat, Brown’s self-described introverted demeanor contrasts with the stereotypical image of the brash “Maverick”-esque fighter pilot from popular culture.
Former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson described a 2018 meeting of senior Air Force leaders — shortly after Brown took command of Pacific Air Forces and received his fourth star — where a sensitive topic was debated at length without agreement.
“He was very quiet until well into the conversation,” Wilson said in an interview with Defense News. “Then he spoke up, and he spoke for probably lower than 60 seconds. And the talk was over.”
“He modified the course of the discussion by not jumping in and attempting to make his points early, but by synthesizing after which suggesting what the very best path forward ought to be,” Wilson added. “He was capable of get others to agree with him and never feel omitted. He found the consensus and was respected for doing so.”
In a March 7 interview with Defense News, Brown said he tends to “listen greater than I talk” and absorb information, then uses his engineer’s mentality to interrupt down tough problems and find an answer.
And in a July 2022 discussion on the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Brown joked his reticent nature sometimes gets him in trouble at home.
“I’m still an introvert,” Brown said. “My wife gets upset after I come home, and says: ‘Did you employ all of your words at work today?’ Yeah, just about I did.”
But John Venable, a defense policy expert on the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and a retired F-16 pilot, said in an interview that Brown has not been aggressive enough to challenge the service’s ingrained attitudes and mindsets, and to make significant changes in preparation for a possible war.
In Venable’s view, Brown has not done enough to show around aircraft readiness shortfalls, insufficient flying hours to maintain pilots sharp, and the lagging procurement of fighter jets and other aircraft that may be needed to win against China.
As a substitute, Venable said, Brown has gone together with the service’s instinct to spend more cash on research and development of future weapons that likely won’t enter service until well into the 2030s — in the event that they even work — which could prove too late.
“He’s a company guy,” Venable said. “Whenever you take the helm of a company, you possibly can float of the organization [and] proceed propagating [its] core tenets. Or you possibly can lead it in a direction such as you’re watching [U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David] Berger do immediately with the Marine Corps. That’s form of the best way Air Force leadership has run for some time … and also you’re watching CQ immediately not cause any ripples.”
A family in uniform
Brown grew up in an Army family, the oldest of three children and the son of a now-retired colonel who served in Vietnam. His grandfather, Army Master Sgt. Robert Brown, led a segregated unit during World War II.
Like many military families, the Browns incessantly moved, but he spent a few of his elementary and middle school years in San Antonio, Texas, and considers the state home.
As a substitute of heading to the Air Force Academy, he attended Texas Tech University on an ROTC scholarship. But as a young man, Brown never thought his military profession would last so long as it did — and even get off the bottom.
Speaking on the ceremony where he assumed command of the Air Force, Brown said he originally planned to only serve 4 years in uniform, and that he almost quit ROTC after his first semester.
“I’m in awe that I’m even standing here because the twenty second Air Force chief of staff,” Brown said in the course of the August 2020 change of command ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
His father — who Brown called “essentially the most influential mentor in my profession” and originally encouraged his son to use for the ROTC scholarship — talked him out of quitting this system. He ended up sticking with ROTC, and that call set him on a path to change into a pilot.
During a summer camp, he took an incentive flight in a T-37 trainer that sparked his love of flying. He became a distinguished graduate of this system in 1984 when he received his civil engineering degree. And his father was there to commission him as an officer.
The subsequent yr, he began undergraduate pilot training at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. In 1986, he began learning to fly the fighter that might define his profession — the F-16 — at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
Brown excelled as an F-16 pilot. He spent a yr and a half flying at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea before returning to the U.S. to change into an F-16 instructor pilot. In late 1992, he became an instructor on the Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada — a job reserved for the very best pilots.
Retired Gen. Hawk Carlisle, former head of Air Combat Command, first met Brown at Nellis around that point. Carlisle recalled being immediately struck by the young pilot’s talent and confidence.
Within the cockpit, Brown was capable of think and make decisions swiftly, Carlisle said. And when students struggled to learn something recent, Carlisle said Brown knew tips on how to simplify the concepts.
In a March 7 interview with Defense News, Brown said he still tries to steer others by helping them break down problems in that way. That’s often the one means to attain “stretch goals,” resembling the “Speed up Change or Lose” transformational effort, he noted.
“I’m not afraid of an enormous difficult problem,” Brown said. “In the event you attempt to take down the entire elephant at one time, you’re not going to find a way to do it.”
Brown’s skill within the cockpit was put to the test within the skies over Florida in January 1991, when a suspected lightning strike to his F-16 ignited and exploded his fuel tank, sparking a fireplace that began to engulf the aircraft. Brown punched out and parachuted safely to the bottom, and he was back in a cockpit the next week.
In late 1994, Brown first got here to the Pentagon to function aide-de-camp to then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ron Fogleman. Brown attended Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama from August 1996 to June 1997, then the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1997. Afterward, he served as an air operations officer for U.S. Central Command and however as an F-16 instructor pilot.
Gaining a wider perspective
Brown returned to the Pentagon in 2004 as a lieutenant colonel, where he worked directly for Carlisle within the Air Force’s programs directorate to construct the service’s classified budget.
“You can tell he had matured in the best way that he carried himself and interacted with essentially the most senior levels of the Air Force,” Carlisle said. “There was little question in your mind that he knew tips on how to be on the Pentagon.”
From then on, Carlisle said, Brown broadened his worldview beyond “the fighter tribe.” Brown grew to know tips on how to manage the dynamics amongst different major commands, the nuances of coping with Congress and diplomacy, and the various components of the Air Force, resembling mobility, space and acquisition, Carlisle added.
That broadening of Brown’s perspective pays off as chairman, Carlisle said, where the overall would should consider the larger picture encompassing the whole military.
Brown returned to the Weapons School in 2005 — this time as commandant — after which led F-16 fighter wings at Kunsan and Aviano Air Base in Italy.
He next began to tackle senior roles with U.S. Air Forces Central Command and U.S. Central Command. He assumed command of the previous in summer 2015, directing the air war against the Islamic State group. The next yr he became deputy chief for U.S. Central Command under Army Gen. Joseph Votel.
The stakes were high, because the war against the Islamic State group, dubbed Operation Inherent Resolve, was coming to a head. The anti-ISIS coalition of American and allied troops, the Iraqi military, and the Syrian Democratic Forces were planning major campaigns to drive the militant group out of the critical cities of Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria. With the campaigns to being in just a few months’ time, and Votel often traveling, Brown became an important partner to the overall.
Votel said that Brown managed Central Command’s headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and represented the organization in major National Security Council meetings and other sessions to plan operations and strategy.
“He’s a gentle hand,” Votel said. “Easy to get together with, calm on the surface, but there’s tension underneath. There’s a way of urgency.”
In summer 2018, Brown made his next move, taking command of Pacific Air Forces; in March 2020, he was nominated to succeed Goldfein as chief of staff.
What would Chairman Brown do?
Brown has the precise personality to run the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in keeping with Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine general and former Senate Armed Services Committee staff director.
As chairman, Punaro said, Brown would wish to play a key diplomatic role — not only constructing and strengthening alliances with the militaries of friendly nations and coping with potential adversaries, but in addition with the American people.
With the military struggling to recruit and public trust falling, Punaro noted, it is going to be necessary for Brown to refer to the nation’s population in regards to the role the military plays in today’s democracy.
“The world is more dangerous and unstable than [it was during] the height of the Cold War,” Punaro said. “He’s going to should attempt to help educate the American people of the challenges that we have now with China.”
While Brown often emphasizes the necessity to arrange for a possible fight against China, he speaks rigorously and avoids hyperbolic language that could possibly be seen as saber rattling — and he expects his subordinates to take similar care.
On the Warfare Symposium on March 7, Brown delivered an unusually public rebuke of one among his top officers, Air Mobility Command head Gen. Mike Minihan. The overall wrote a memo that predicted war with China in 2025. Within the document, leaked online in late January, Minihan used provocative language resembling “aim for the top” to explain the necessity for “unrepentant lethality” in preparing for conflict.
“There’s facets of that memo I used to be dissatisfied in,” Brown told reporters in a roundtable on the conference. “It detracted from the important thing message of the sense of urgency that’s required.”
Spencer, the previous Air Force vice chief of staff, said that if Brown is nominated and confirmed as chairman, he would likely make himself more visible to the general public than Milley or other previous chairmen. Brown would even be an efficient “diplomat” to represent the military services for the American people, particularly as they fight to unravel lingering recruiting challenges, Spencer added.
“The fact of it’s, after all, he represents that anyone — no matter your ethnicity, your background, your race or your gender — if you could have the form of talent and drive and initiative and leadership capability and warfighting credentials that he has, it doesn’t matter what you appear to be,” Spencer said. “You’ll be able to go to the highest job.”
But Brown brings far more to the table, Spencer noted, because he speaks his mind and doesn’t “sugarcoat” things, while his amiable personality when delivering hard truths means “the media will flock to him.”
“I don’t think most individuals you stop on the road know who the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is,” Spencer said. “I predict that he will probably be more visible and more recognizable [than previous chairmen], which I feel will go a protracted technique to improve the recruiting challenge that a few of the services have. I feel he will probably be viewed by parents and folk on the Hill as: That is what the military is all about, and I need my kids to be like him.”
But before Brown took command of the Air Force in 2020, becoming the primary Black person to function a U.S. service chief, he felt compelled to talk out. Consequently, he found himself drawn to the highlight in an unexpected way.
‘The correct thing to do’
On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis police killed a Black man named George Floyd during an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit bill to purchase cigarettes. Officers pinned the handcuffed Floyd on the bottom, and video later showed that one white officer knee2led on his neck for greater than nine minutes. Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, however the police didn’t let him up.
Video of Floyd’s death swept across the country and generated outrage, prompting mass protests against police brutality and igniting a nationwide conversation about racism and inequality.
The talk spread within the military as well. Then-Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth Wright, who’s Black, on June 1 posted a lengthy message on social media on racial injustice. At one point in his post, Wright wrote: “I’m George Floyd.”
In his own video, Brown spoke about what it was like “living in two worlds” — each as a Black man and as an officer within the U.S. military.
His speech invoked the ideals of equality within the Declaration of Independence and the Structure “that I even have sworn my adult life to support and defend.” But he also spoke in regards to the history of racial issues within the country he loves and serves, and discussed “my very own experiences that didn’t at all times sing of liberty and equality.”
To Spencer, what made Brown’s video ring a bell was precisely the plain-spoken nature for which the overall is understood.
“He comes across [in the video] as, ‘I’m telling you facts here,’ ” Spencer said. “ ‘I’m just telling you ways I feel, how loads of folks feel.’ ”
After the video went viral, Spencer said several retired three- and four-star generals he had served with called to ask about it, wondering whether Spencer has similar experiences to Brown’s.
“Absolutely I did,” Spencer told his white counterparts in those calls. Brown “opened up, regardless that it was a brief window … a dialogue that I assumed was very healthy.”
4 days after the video hit the online, the Senate unanimously voted to approve Brown as Air Force chief of staff.
Within the December 2020 interview with NPR, Brown acknowledged the video could possibly be difficult for his profession, but said even when he had sacrificed his probabilities of becoming Air Force chief of staff to talk out, it will’ve been price it.
“I assumed it was more necessary than, in some cases, confirmation,” Brown told NPR. “If confirmation had been withheld for some reason, I knew in my heart of hearts I did what I assumed was the precise thing to do. And that’s the best way I approach life.”
Bryant Harris and Rachel S. Cohen contributed to this report.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.