Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, a retired three-star Air Force officer, quickly moved up the list of candidates to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Lt. Gen. Dan Caine with an Iraqi general in Mosul, Iraq, in 2018. General Caine graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1990 with a degree in economics and became an F-16 pilot.
Democratic lawmakers and retired military officers expressed concern about the politicization of the military under President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., left, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, greeting the new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on his first official day at the Pentagon last month.
The decision to fire Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot, upends a tradition in which the Joint Chiefs chairman traditionally remains in place as administrations change.