General James McConville Nominated as the Next Army Chief of Staff
On the 25th March U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff General James McConville was nominated to succeed General Mark A. Milley as the next Army Chief of Staff. The nomination has been submitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
General Mark A. Milley, the 39th Chief of Staff of the Army, has been in post since August 2015. Back in December President Trump announced that he would nominate Milley to serve as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the US’ highest ranking and most senior officer, replacing General Joseph Dunford, USMC.
General McConville, age 59, has served as Vice Chief of Staff since April 2017. A graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology and United States Military Academy, West Point in 1981, he has previously been Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division and has previously served as Chief of Legislative Liaison and Executive Officer to the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army. He was also a National Security Fellow, Harvard University.
He had a long career as an Army aviator qualified on a host of helicopters and attack helicopters including the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior, the AH-64D Longbow Apache, the AH-6 and the AH-1 Cobra. He is a Master Army Aviator and served during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and in Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom.
General McConville along with General Milley has led the Army’s recent modernisation efforts including the formation of the new Army Futures Command, based in Austin, Texas, which is leading the major modernisation programme currently being undertaken. It is likely that as Army Chief of Staff General McConville will continue to spearhead army modernisation and was part of the effort to cut legacy and under performing research and development and procurement programmes.
The nomination of General McConville as Army Chief of Staff has not yet been formally announced and the position is not stated in his Senate Armed Services Committee nomination, which you can find here.