Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville is continuing his one-made blockade over military promotions as a protest against the military’s policy of paying travel and medical expenses for members going to another state to obtain an abortion.
Now, the Pentagon’s soon-to-be highest military leader is speaking out against former college football coach Tuberville
Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, who currently serves as Joint Chief vice chairman, will “simultaneously have to fill in as chairman starting OCt. 1 with the retirement of Gen. Mark Milley if his replacement, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, can’t get confirmed in the next two weeks. Brown is also the subject to Tuberville’s hold,” Tara Copp of The Independent reported.
“We’re on the fringe of losing a generation of champions,” Air Force Gen. Mark Kelly told reporters this week. Kelly, according to The Independent, said he’s talked to junior officers, many with families, and they are “people who will take a bullet for the nation, the Constitution.” But when it comes to dragging their family through this, “There’s a red line.”
“We need C.Q. Brown to be confirmed as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Navy Adm/ Grady said Wednesday at the Air and Space Forces Association conference.
Younger officers stuck in limbo by the holds “can’t plan for their moves or get their kids in school” Grady said. “There is a cumulative cost to this, and we need to be very attuned to that.”
Tuberville, thus far, has shown no intention of reversing course on his blockade.