The White House announced Friday afternoon that President Barack Obama intends to nominate Erik F. Fanning as the next secretary of the Army, a move that would make Fanning the first openly gay person to lead the Army if confirmed by the Senate.
Fanning has served as acting under secretary of the Army since June 2015 and previously served as special assistant to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. He has a long record of national security service in the military and Congress which dates back more than two decades. The 47-year-old, however, has no record of military service, but it is not a requirement for the position and many who have held the position have not served.
The White House announced the nomination in a news release with several others.
“These fine public servants bring a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to their important roles,” Obama said. “I look forward to working with them.”
Fanning was already the highest ranking openly gay member in the Department of Defense.
The American Military Partner Association, a non-profit group that bills itself as the largest organization advocating for LGBT service members and veterans, applauded the decision.
“We are thrilled to see Eric Fanning nominated to lead the world’s greatest Army,” the group’s president, Ashley Broadway-Mack, said in a statement. “History continues to be written and equality marches forward with the nomination of an openly gay man to serve in this significantly important role.”
“Fanning’s expertise and knowledge within the defense community together with his sensitivity to issues faced by LGBT service members and their families is why we urge the Senate to move quickly to confirm his appointment,” Broadway-Mack added.
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Secretary of Defense: Only Military Issue Obama Cared About was Gays
The only military matter which I sensed deep passion was ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’
Obama sent 1,600 Americans to die in Afghanistan but never believed in it or cared about it. The only military issue he did care about was gays in the military. And that’s according to his own Secretary of Defense.
This is what a liberal at war looks like.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates sharply questions President Obama’s “passion” for military matters in his forthcoming memoir, and claims that practically the only time he saw that in the president was during his push to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“One quality I missed in Obama was passion, especially when it came to the two wars,” Gates wrote. “In my presence, Bush — very unlike his father — was pretty unsentimental. But he was passionate about the war in Iraq; on occasion, at a Medal of Honor ceremony or the like, I would see his eyes well up. I worked for Obama longer than Bush, and I never saw his eyes well up.”
Gates went on to suggest that the president was far more emotional about repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” — the policy barring openly gay people from serving in the military.
He wrote that “the only military matter, apart from leaks, about which I ever sensed deep passion on his part was ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ For him, changing the law seemed to be the inevitable next step in the civil rights movement.”
Gates went on to write about how he believes that the president cares about the troops, but over the next few years gave few public speeches about the stakes in Afghanistan and did not show the troops he was really in the fight to win.
“Given his campaign rhetoric about Afghanistan, I think I myself, our commanders, and our troops had expected more commitment to the cause and more passion for it from him,” Gates wrote.
If only Obama had been told that the Taliban stone gays to death, he might have been in it to win it.
