White House selects Marine general as next head of US forces in Africa

President Biden has nominated Maritime Corps Lt. Gen. Michael Langley to command all U.S. forces in Africa, a preference that, if confirmed, would make him the first Black 4-star standard in the service’s history, the Pentagon revealed Thursday.

Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin declared the nomination conclusion on Langley, who has served as head of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command and Marine Corps Forces North, as nicely as commanding typical of Fleet Maritime Drive Atlantic since November 2021.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would guide U.S. Africa Command, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and tasked with all U.S. military services functions on the African continent.

The continent is suffering from a rash of financial and protection pursuits from China and Russia — the latter controlling the private army corporation Wagner Team, whose mercenaries function in Libya and the Central African Republic.

Africa also struggles with terrorism and violence in the Sahel region, and armed service coups in Chad, Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso.

Langley would choose above for present-day Africom chief Army Gen. Stephen Townsend, who has headed the command because July 2019.

Commissioned in 1985, he has commanded at every stage from platoon to regiment and has deployed to Japan, Afghanistan and Somalia, the latter wherever Biden recently decided to return up to 500 troops for counterterrorism functions.

Langley has also labored at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, the military services arm which oversees American forces in the Center East, according to his Marine Corps biography.

In May, The New York Occasions to start with described on Langley’s impending nomination, with former Protection Secretary James Mattis praising him, telling the paper: “He’s a Marine’s Marine.”

The Marines have a complicated historical past with Black People. The provider was the last armed service arm to admit Black troops when it did so in 1942.

Considering that then, much less than 30 men and women have achieved the rank of general in any form, with none making it to the 4-star rank, in accordance to the Occasions.

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