Gates Picks Greenert as Naval Operations Chief

WASHINGTON — Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates announced today that he has rec­om­mend­ed Navy Adm. Jonathan W. Green­ert, vice chief of naval oper­a­tions, to suc­ceed the retir­ing Navy Adm. Gary Roug­head as the next chief of naval oper­a­tions.

Gates said he made the rec­om­men­da­tion to Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma based on Greenert’s sol­id port­fo­lio that includes both sig­nif­i­cant per­son­nel pro­grams and bud­get responsibilities. 

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Green­ert is “an excep­tion­al offi­cer, and if con­firmed, will be, I believe, an excep­tion­al CNO.” 

“He has won­der­ful oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence, fleet expe­ri­ence, he’s ter­rif­ic with peo­ple and he has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the mon­ey world, which is now fac­ing all of us,” Mullen said. “So I strong­ly con­cur with the secretary’s recommendation.” 

Greenert’s career as a sub­mariner includes assign­ments aboard the USS Fly­ing Fish, USS Tau­tog, Sub­ma­rine NR‑1 and USS Michi­gan and as com­man­der of USS Hon­olu­lu. He also served as com­man­der of Sub­ma­rine Squadron 11, U.S. Naval Forces Mar­i­ana, U.S. 7th Fleet in the Pacif­ic and U.S. Fleet Forces Com­mand before he become the vice CNO. 

Gates praised Roug­head, who will retire this fall, for four decades of ser­vice and lead­er­ship at the helm of the Navy for the past four years. 

“I have very much enjoyed work­ing with Gary and have great­ly val­ued his coun­sel and wis­dom on both Navy issues and broad­er strate­gic issues,” he said. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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