“Eric provides lots of years of background and extraordinary instruction to this fantastic position”, Obama said inside a announcement.
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Eric Fanning has been nominated by President Obama to be the next secretary of the Army.
Obama tapped Eric Fanning, 47, a national security specialist with more than two decades of experience, to be the next Secretary of the Army.
Advocacy groups said the nomination of an openly gay man to lead a USA service branch was a significant sign of progress in protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals serving in the world’s most powerful military.
The Defense Department’s highest ranking transgender official, Amanda Simpson, was sworn in today as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy. He temporarily served as acting Secretary of the Air Force several years ago, before the current secretary was approved.
“I know he will strengthen our Army, build on its best traditions and prepare our ground forces to confront a new generation of challenges”, Carter said.
Since June, Fanning has been acting undersecretary of the Army, which has about 570,000 active duty troops. If confirmed, he will be the first openly gay person to hold the position. Obama said in a recent statement that he sees Fanning as an exceptional and experienced leader, that he is “grateful for [Fanning’s] commitment to our men and women in uniform”, and “confident he will help lead America’s Soldiers with distinction”.
Prior to joining the administration, Fanning was deputy director of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, in a news release, also praised the president’s “excellent choice”, saying he hopes for a quick Senate confirmation.
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As this news surely has Fanning overjoyed, diplomats from across the nation are also overjoyed by Obama’s nomination and took to micro-blogging site Twitter to support the drive towards equality. It is no secret that many service members have indicate they don’t have a comfort level working intimately with gays.
