General Charles Q. Brown Jr. is known for weathering the storm.
There was a time in 1991 when his F-16 was struck by lightning and had to jump into the alligator-infested Everglades, earning him the nickname “Swamp Thang”. It happened in 2020, when the Senate voted to confirm him as head of the Air Force, he spoke quietly but powerfully in a video about the many African Americans who have suffered the same fate as George Floyd.
That was last summer, when a Republican senator from Alabama delayed for months a vote on his confirmation as President Biden’s top military adviser. General Brown, known as CQ, put his head down as Democrats and Republicans argued.
“You know that old ad, ‘When E. F. When Hutton speaks, do people listen?’” General David L. Goldfein, the retired Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview. There are many words to say, but he always had more.
On Friday, General Brown, a four-star Air Force fighter pilot who has logged 130 combat hours in 39 years of service, was sworn in as the nation’s highest-ranking military officer. His four-year tenure begins on Sunday.
