U.S. President Donald Trump fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS), and nominated a retired three-star Air Force officer as the new chairman.

Trump announced the shake-up of the highest-ranking military post on social media on Friday, saying he wants to thank Brown for his over 40 years of service to the country, including as the JCS chairman.

A former combat pilot, Brown was the second Black officer in U.S. history to hold the post, and was less than halfway through his four-year term, which began on October 1, 2023.

Trump and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had previously mentioned the impending dismissals of high-ranking military officials, including Brown, for excessively concentrating on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

As for the nominee, Air Force Lt.-Gen. Dan Caine, Trump praised him as an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a "warfighter" with significant interagency and special operations experience.

Caine had served in combat roles in Iraq and in an operation to expel the Islamic State(IS), and was an associate director for military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) from 2021 to 2024.