President Biden has nominated Lt. Gen. James Slife, deputy chief of staff for operations of the U.S. Air Force, for assignment as the service branch’s next vice chief of staff and promotion to the rank of general, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced Wednesday.
If confirmed, Slife would succeed Gen. David Allvin, who was nominated to replace Gen. Charles Brown Jr. as chief of staff of the Air Force.
Slife’s special operations aviation assignments include commander of Air Force Special Operations Command; chief of staff and vice commander of U.S. Special Operations Command; and vice director of strategy, plans and policy of U.S. Central Command.
As a command pilot, Slife has logged over 3,100 flying hours in aircraft models, including the MH-53 combat search and rescue helicopter and the MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft.
