U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus, Continental U.S. NORAD Region commander, converses with U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jordan Mohler, an aviation resource manager assigned to the Ohio National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing, in Swanton, Ohio, Feb. 1, 2024. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class Nicholas Battani)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a slew of nominations for military leadership positions, including a proposed new head for the National Guard, US Transportation Command and US Southern Command.
The president has tapped Lt. Gen. Steven Nordhaus, a former F-16 pilot and current head of the Continental US NORAD region, to lead the National Guard Bureau, replacing Army Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson. Nordhaus, who joined the Ohio National Guard in 1998, previously served as the special assistant to the director of the Air National Guard, according to a Guard release.
Among the pressing issues into which Nordhaus would step, should he be confirmed by the Senate, is the contentious debate over how the Guard and the Space Force will divide their work, since currently Air Guard units are tasked with space-related jobs. Hokansan has been a vocal critic of a proposed plan to fold the Air Guard units into the Space Force, and instead called for the creation of a new Space Guard.
Elsewhere, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Reed has been selected to head up US Transportation Command, a move from his current post as deputy commander at Air Mobility Command, the air component within TRANSCOM. According to Reed’s biography, the Air Force Academy grad was a pilot for transportation and surveillance aircraft, and has “held a variety of joint, headquarters, and base-level positions, including assignments in strategic airlift, special operations air refueling, and joint logistics spanning Operation Desert Storm to Operation Allies Refuge.”
At SOUTHCOM, Biden nominated Navy Vice Adm. Alvin Holsey, right now SOUTHCOM’s military deputy commander, to step up and into the shoes of Army Gen. Laura Richardson. A former helicopter pilot, Holsey’s bio shows experience in naval theaters from the Middle East to Europe to the Pacific, prior to joining the Western Hemisphere command.
Upon Senate confirmation, Holsey will come into a job that Richardson has described as as diplomatic as much as it is military, as the US tries to shore up relations among Caribbean, Central American and South American nations before China and, to a lesser extent, Russia can make any more headway in the region.
Lastly, Biden hopes to put the commander of the US Army Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Moore, Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Buzzard, in charge of the Security Assistance Group – Ukraine, the DoD organization charged with coordinating US aid for the embattled Eastern European nation. Buzzard, who served as an infantry officer in the 82nd Airborne, also took on command and staff assignments, including on deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was a military aide to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
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