WASHINGTON, May 25, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - US President Joe Biden will on Thursday nominate Air Force General Charles Brown to replace Army General Mark Milley as the country's top military officer.
 
   Brown would become the second Black officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- after Colin Powell from 1989-1993 -- at a time when the Pentagon is headed by Lloyd Austin, the country's first Black secretary of defense.
 
   The nomination for Brown to replace Milley -- whose term ends in September -- will be made at a Rose Garden ceremony, the White House said in a statement.
 
   Brown, who currently serves as chief of staff of the US Air Force and was commissioned as an officer in 1984, is an experienced pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours, 130 of them in combat.
 
   He has commanded a fighter squadron and two fighter wings, as well as US air forces under the Central Command and Indo-Pacific Command.
 
   Following the 2020 murder of Black man George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota, Brown recorded an emotional video about his personal experiences, including with discrimination in the American military.
 
   "I'm thinking about my Air Force career, where I was often the only African American in my squadron or as a senior officer, the only African American in the room," Brown said.
 
   "I'm thinking about the pressure I felt to perform error-free, especially for supervisors I perceive had expected less from me as an African American," he said.