U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump[1] is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East[2], the Pentagon said Wednesday. If he is confirmed, it would mark just the second time that a Navy admiral has held the job.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth[3] said in a statement that Trump also is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson to head U.S. Africa Command. Anderson would be the first Air Force general to lead the command, which was created in 2007.

Cooper is currently deputy commander of U.S. Central Command and has extensive experience serving and leading troops in the Middle East. The current head of the command, Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, is slated to retire after more than three years in the post.

It is a crucial role as the region has been shaken by conflict[4], with the Trump administration pushing to broker a ceasefire deal[5] after 20 months of war in Gaza and pressing for an agreement[6] with Iran in negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program[7].

A 1989 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Cooper commanded naval forces in the Middle East for close to three years as the head of the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. He left in February 2024 to take over as deputy at Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and is based in Tampa.

Army and Marine generals have largely held the Middle East job since it was created in 1983. And two of the recent leaders — former Army Gen. Lloyd Austin and former Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, went on to serve as defense secretary. Central Command covers 21 countries across central and south Asia and northeast Africa and has overseen the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Syria and Yemen.

The only Navy officer to ever lead Central Command was Adm. William Fallon, who resigned after a year and retired. At the time, Fallon said he was stepping down due to press reports that suggested he was opposed to then-President George W. Bush's Iran policies. He said the reports were wrong but the perception had become a distraction.

Cooper is a surface warfare officer and served on guided-missile cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships. He commanded a destroyer and a cruiser.

During his time leading the 5th Fleet, Cooper set up the Navy's first unmanned and artificial intelligence task force, and he led naval operations against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. He also oversaw the Navy's role in Operation Prosperity Guardian, the U.S.-led coalition created in late 2023 to counter Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

He previously served as commander of Naval Surface Force Atlantic and commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea. Cooper is the son of a career Army officer and got his master’s degree in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University.

Anderson, nominated to lead operations in Africa, is a pilot who has flown the KC-135 tanker, the C-130 transport aircraft and the U-28A surveillance aircraft used largely by special operations forces. He has flown more than 3,400 flight hours, including 738 in combat.

He is currently serving as the director of joint force development on the Joint Staff.

According to the Air Force, he commanded a special operations squadron, an expeditionary squadron, an operations group and a special operations wing. He also led the task force that coordinated the repositioning of U.S. forces from Somalia and headed Special Operations Command, Africa, from 2019 to 2021.

Africa Command is the newest of the Pentagon's geographic commands and covers the bulk of the African continent. Much of the U.S. military's efforts there have focused on combatting extremist groups and training local forces.

Anderson would be the seventh general to head Africa Command. To date, four of the previous leaders were Army generals and two were Marines.

Anderson is from Ypsilanti, Michigan, and graduated from the ROTC program at Washington University in St. Louis.

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The John Lewis-class replenishment oiler USNS Harvey Milk

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy[1] to take the rare step of renaming a ship, one that bears the name of a gay rights icon, documents and sources show.

Military.com reviewed a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy -- the official who holds the power to name Navy ships -- that showed the sea service had come up with rollout plans for the renaming of the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.

A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparations to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth. The official also said that the timing of the announcement -- occurring during Pride month -- was intentional.

Read Next: Overhauled Army Caisson Unit Conducts First Funeral Service at Arlington Following Suspension[2]

Military.com reached out to Hegseth's office for comment on the move but did not immediately receive a response.

However, the memo reviewed by Military.com noted that the renaming was being done so that there is "alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture," apparently referencing President Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan.

Milk became one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history during the 1970s, making him an icon of the nascent gay civil rights movement, and was killed while serving on the board of supervisors in San Francisco.

The renaming news was slated to become public June 13, according to the memo.

A new name for the Harvey Milk was not given but, according to the memo, Hegseth and Phelan are planning to announce the new name aboard the USS Constitution[3], the oldest commissioned Navy ship.

The Harvey Milk is a John Lewis-class oiler, a group of ships that are to be named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists.

While there are some rare examples of Navy ships being renamed following construction and christening, those instances are outliers and, broadly, Navy traditions consider renaming a ship to be taboo.

The most recent renaming occurred in 2023 when the Navy decided to rename the cruiser USS Chancellorsville and research ship USNS Maury -- two names with ties to the Confederacy -- to USS Robert Smalls[4] and USNS Marie Tharp, respectively[5].

Unlike the decision to rename the Harvey Milk, which was done on the orders of Hegseth, the recommendation to rename the two ships came from a commission[6] that was created by Congress to study names with ties to the Confederacy across the entire military.

The oiler was first named after Milk in 2016 by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. Milk came from a family that had a history of naval service and he was commissioned as an officer in 1951, according to USNI News[7]. Milk then served as a diving officer on the submarine rescue ship USS Kittiwake during the Korean War. He was honorably discharged from the service as a lieutenant junior grade in 1955.

Milk then went on to run for political office in California, winning a seat on the San Francisco board of supervisors in 1977. He was killed in office in 1978 shortly after passing a bill banning housing and employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.

His death transformed Milk into an icon in San Francisco and a martyr in the LGBTQ community. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009[8].

The USNS Harvey Milk is currently completing maintenance and refit work at a shipyard in Alabama that is expected to wrap up by the end of June[9].

Related: Hegseth Restricts Press Access at Pentagon, Says Journalists Will Be Required to Sign Pledge[10]

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For Air Force 2nd Lt. Braeden Holcombe, an engineering project programmer assigned to 325th Civil Engineer Squadron, the Air Force uniform means more than service — it's a symbol of pushing beyond boundaries, whether in engineering projects or the Olympics. 

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