Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown Jr.

Before Charles Q. Brown Jr. became the most senior uniformed officer in the United States military, he was a Texas Tech cadet who wanted to quit. He had signed up for ROTC and decided after a single semester that the military was not for him — it took his father, a retired Army colonel who had served in Vietnam, to talk him into staying (The American Legion). He stayed, fell in love with flying fighter jets, and rose to become the 21st chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — the first Black chief of staff of any U.S. military service and only the second Black officer to hold the chairmanship (The American Legion; U.S. Air Force). In February 2025, 16 months into a four-year term, President Donald Trump fired him (Associated Press).

The pilot

Brown earned his commission in 1984 as a distinguished graduate of the Air Force ROTC program at Texas Tech University, where he studied civil engineering before adding a master’s degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (U.S. Air Force). What followed was a pilot’s career in the purest sense: he became an F-16 instructor, served at the U.S. Air Force Weapons School as an F-16 Fighting Falcon instructor, and eventually commanded the Weapons School itself, along with a fighter squadron and two fighter wings — the 8th at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea and the 31st at Aviano Air Base in Italy (U.S. Air Force).

The detail that best captures his reputation came from President Joe Biden at the Rose Garden ceremony nominating Brown as chairman: in 1991, Brown’s F-16 caught fire during a training mission over Florida, and he ejected at more than 300 miles per hour, landing in the Everglades (The American Legion). “I’ll tell you what — he was back in the cockpit the next week,” Biden said (The American Legion). By the end of his career he was a command pilot with more than 3,100 flight hours, including 130 combat hours, and had flown 20 additional fixed and rotary-wing aircraft beyond the F-16 (U.S. Air Force). His operational tours spanned Operations Southern Watch, Northern Watch, Enduring Freedom, Odyssey Dawn, Unified Protector and Inherent Resolve (U.S. Air Force).

The commander

Brown’s rise took him through the Air Force’s most demanding jobs. He served three tours at U.S. Central Command — as air operations officer, deputy director of operations, and deputy commander from July 2016 to July 2018 — before taking command of U.S. Air Forces Central Command and then Pacific Air Forces, the air component of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, from July 2018 to July 2020 (U.S. Air Force). In August 2020 he became the Air Force chief of staff, confirmed by the Senate in a 98-0 vote, making him the first Black officer to lead a U.S. military service branch (The American Legion).

Weeks into that job, after the police killing of George Floyd, Brown released a five-minute video titled “Here’s What I’m Thinking About” that made him a national figure (Associated Press). He described pushing himself “to perform error-free” as a pilot and officer his whole life while still facing bias — being questioned about his credentials, he said, “even when he wore the same flight suit and wings as every other pilot” (Associated Press). Biden later called him “a fearless leader” for showing the world his unvarnished experience (The American Legion). The video, and his support for diversity and equity efforts in the service, would later become ammunition for his critics (Associated Press).

The chairman

Biden nominated Brown in May 2023 to succeed Army Gen. Mark Milley as chairman, calling him “a proud butt-kicking American airman — first and always” and praising his reputation as an unflappable leader who creates “an environment of teamwork, trust and executes with excellence” (The American Legion). His path to confirmation was troubled: he was among more than 260 senior military nominations stalled for months by Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama over Pentagon abortion-travel policy (Associated Press). When the vote finally came in September 2023, the Senate confirmed him 89-8 (Associated Press). His service as chairman made history beyond his own appointment: it was the first time that both the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs were Black (Associated Press).

The firing

On February 21, 2025, Trump abruptly fired Brown in a social media post, sidelining him 16 months into his four-year term as part of a campaign, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, to remove military leaders associated with diversity and equity programs (Associated Press). “I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump posted (Associated Press).

The firing had been telegraphed. The previous November, Hegseth had said on a podcast, flatly: “First of all, you gotta fire, you know, you gotta fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs” (Associated Press). In one of his books, Hegseth had questioned whether Brown got the job because he was Black, writing: “Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt” (Associated Press). Yet on January 27, 2025, his first day as defense chief, Hegseth had patted Brown on the back and said, “Look forward to working with him” (Associated Press).

The same day Brown was fired, Hegseth announced the firings of two more senior officers: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti — the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs — and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Jim Slife (Associated Press). Trump said he was nominating retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, a career F-16 pilot most recently the CIA’s associate director for military affairs, as the next chairman; because Caine had never served as a combatant commander or service chief, Trump had to sign a waiver of the legal prerequisites (Associated Press).

Congressional reaction split along party lines. Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker thanked Brown “for his decades of honorable service” and expressed confidence in a qualified successor, while ranking Democrat Jack Reed called the firings “a direct attempt to politicize the military,” warning that “elected leaders — especially Senate Republicans — must defend that enduring principle against corrosive attempts to remake the military into a partisan force” (Associated Press).

What this profile does not claim

It does not state Brown’s exact birth date — no source read for this profile confirmed it, and encyclopedia-index entries were not cited. It does not describe his post-firing activities or statements; no source read in full covered them. It does not assert a single official reason for the firing beyond what was reported: the AP described it as part of the administration’s campaign against diversity and equity programs in the ranks, and Trump himself offered thanks rather than an explanation. It does not claim the chairmanship carries command authority — the role is advisory to the president and the secretary of defense, per an Atlantic Council briefing quoted in the AP’s reporting.