ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley has been selected by President Donald Trump to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Trump announced his intention to nominate the 60-year-old four-star general to be his top military adviser as a successor to Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, whose term as JCS chairman expires in 2019.

No announcement was made about Milley’s successor. 

The new job for Milley requires Senate confirmation. No hearing date has been announced, and Trump did not indicate when he’d like to make the change.

The Army is more capable today than it has been in decades, and it will need to remain at the highest level of readiness as the “faint clouds of a coming storm” creep over the horizon, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said in his keynote remarks at the Eisenhower luncheon at the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Army Futures Command is the service’s “scout into the future,” and what it does “will determine victory or defeat on future battlefields,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said Aug. 24 as the new organization was activated in Austin, Texas.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley left no doubt about what he thinks of the National Guard. “The United States Army cannot execute its mission without the United States Army National Guard,” he said. “It just cannot do it. It is not out of love or affection. It is a simple practical matter.”

People, values and alliances were the top priorities listed by Secretary of the Army Mark T. Esper at a 2019 budget hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Taking care of soldiers, civilians and families topped his list. Recommitment to Army Values and the Warrior Ethos was second. Strengthening relationships with allies and partners came third, according to his April 12 statement.

The Army is asking for $182.1 billion for fiscal year 2019, an 8 percent increase over 2018.

Army readiness has dramatically improved in the two-plus years Gen. Mark A. Milley has been chief of staff.

Testifying March 15 before the House Appropriations Committee, Milley said just two brigade combat teams were fully combat-ready when he became the Army’s top uniformed officer in August 2015. While he didn’t want to say in public how much better the Army is doing, Milley said the Army is “significantly more ready” but “is not where we want to be.”

“This is an important year, 2018, for the Army,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said Jan. 17 at the first Institute of Land Warfare breakfast of the year, hosted by the Association of the U.S. Army. “This is a year of some very exciting things.”

“We find ourselves at a big transition point in our history,” Milley said, estimating the U.S. is in the middle of a 10- to 30-year evolution in the character of military warfare. It would be “a great strategic mistake” not to recognize the change, he said.