WASHINGTON — Gen. John Lamontagne has been nominated to serve as the next Air Force vice chief of staff, teeing up the mobility chief to fill a critical role left vacant for most of the year, according to a congressional notice.
The general’s nomination was grouped with several others submitted by the White House on Monday, including key positions for fellow military services.
Lamontagne, the head of Air Mobility Command, oversees the Air Force’s logistics platforms like cargo aircraft and air refuelers. If confirmed by the Senate for the new post, he would play a critical role formulating the service’s requirements, and guiding it through a raft of acquisition reforms championed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
A graduate of the US Air Force academy, Lamontagne achieved the rating of command pilot flying the C-12, KC-135 and C-17. Among his assignments, he was previously the deputy director of the joint staff’s J-5 team and served as the deputy commander of US air forces in Europe and Africa prior to leading AMC, according to his service biography.
The vice chief job was previously helmed by Gen. James Slife, who was fired by Hegseth in February amid an unprecedented purge of senior military officers. Gen. Thomas Bussiere, who until recently led Air Force Global Strike Command, was picked for the vice chief role earlier this year, but his nomination was subsequently pulled. Bussiere has since retired.
Lamontagne was just one of several military nominees revealed Monday. For the Air Force, Brig. Gen. Christopher Eason was tapped as the service’s next Judge Advocate General — one of the positions swept up in the February firings — a position that comes with the rank of major general. Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer has also been nominated as the Air National Guard’s next director, which would raise his rank to lieutenant general if confirmed.
The White House additionally nominated a group of other Air Force officers for the promotion to the rank of lieutenant general, including Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey, the Air Force’s program executive officer for command, control and communications. The nomination announcements only listed the names of officials and their nominated rank, not what job they are for; Breaking Defense has reached out to the Air Force for more information on the nomination of Cropsey and others.
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Additionally, a group of senior naval officers were also nominated for new positions with the rank of vice admiral. Among them was Vice Adm. Robert Gaucher, the commander of naval submarine forces, otherwise known as the service’s top operational submariner. Breaking Defense previously reported that Gaucher was under consideration for a new top role overseeing the service’s submarine construction programs, but his Senate nomination sheet available online does not list the role he has been selected for. A Navy spokesperson declined to comment.
Justin Katz contributed to this report.