Air Force fighter pilot tapped by Biden to be next Joint Chiefs chairman has history of firsts

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force fighter pilot about to be nominated as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff got his callsign by ejecting from a burning F-16 fighter jet high above the Florida Everglades and falling into the watery sludge below. It was January 1991, and then-Capt. CQ Brown Jr. had just enough time in his parachute above alligator-full wetlands. He landed in the muck, which coated his body. That’s how the nominee to be the country’s next top military officer got his callsign: “Swamp Thing.” President Joe Biden will formally nominate Brown for the chairman’s job on Thursday (May 25, 2023).