Andrea Thompson, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former national security adviser to the House Homeland Security Committee, will assume the roles of deputy assistant to the president and national security adviser to the vice president.

The White House said Wednesday Thompson, who most recently worked as director of the McChrystal Group Leadership Institute, has more than 25 years of military service with deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia.

“Colonel Thompson brings a wealth of knowledge as a career military intelligence officer and combat veteran to her role as my national security adviser,” said Vice President Mike Pence.

“She has a deep understanding of the complex challenges that face the United States at this juncture in history and is uniquely qualified to serve in this important role.”

Thompson’s career with the U.S. military includes assignments as chief of staff for the Intelligence Directorate/J2 in Afghanistan and senior intelligence officer for the Multi-National Division (North) in Iraq.

She has also served as executive officer to the undersecretary of the Army, senior military adviser to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a senior fellow with the Army’s strategic studies group.

The complete list of new appointees who will serve on the vice president’s staff can be found here.

This story was originally published on January 26, 2017.

Maj. Gen. Scottie Carpenter, commander of the U.S. Army Reserve‘s 84th Training Command, has been appointed as deputy commanding general of the Army Reserve Command and the Army Reserve unit within the Army Forces Command, the Defense Department said Monday.

Prior to his role as leader of the 84th Training Command, Carpenter held other leadership positions at the 211th Military Police Company, 171st Corps Support Group, 805th Military Police Company, 120th Army Reserve Command and the 311th Sustainment Command.

He also served in various roles with the 641st Area Support Group, 143rd, 103rd and 311th Expeditionary Support Commands, 81st Regional Readiness Command, 11th Military Police Brigade and the Theater Personnel Operations Directorate.

The major general completed the Military Police Officer Basic and Quartermaster Officer advanced courses at the Combined Arms and Services Staff School of the Command and General Staff College.

He holds a master’s degree in strategic studies and graduated the S-2 Combat operations Course from the U.S. Army War College.

This story was originally published on March 22, 2017.

Capt. Gisele Bonitz, executive officer of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, has been appointed commanding officer of SSS Pacific.

She took over the post from Capt. Kurt Rothenhaus, who has been SSC Pacific’s commanding officer since 2013, during a change-of-command ceremony held Monday at SSC Pacific in San Diego, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.

Rothenhaus received the Legion of Merit award from Rear Adm. Dave Lewis, commander of the Space and Naval Warfare Command, during the ceremony in recognition of his performance and contributions to SSC Pacific.

Bonitz held leadership roles at SPAWAR that include chief of staff and executive assistant as well as adviser to the chief engineering on information technology issues.

She became chief of information assurance at the Combined Joint Task Force Seven in Iraq in 2003 and months later assumed the role of deputy of the innovations and experimentation directorate at Commander, 3rd Fleet in San Diego.

The 20-year Navy veteran led the development of a communications infrastructure that supported operations of the expeditionary strike group one as assistant chief of staff for command, control, communications, computers and information.

She also served in various IT leadership posts at the U.S. Strategic Command such as computer network defense and information assurance branch chief, deputy for the cyber space, C2 requirements division and division chief for the IT enterprise system and plans division.

Bonitz is a recipient of numerous awards that include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and Legion of Merit.

SSC Pacific serves as SPAWAR’s lab that works to provide information warfare capability for naval, joint and coalition forces through research, development, test and evaluation efforts.

This story was originally published on January 13, 2017.

President Barack Obama has nominated Vice Adm. Dixon Smith as deputy chief of naval operations for fleet and readiness at the U.S. Navy and Rear Adm. Mary Jackson as commander of the Navy Installations Command.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday that President Obama also endorsed the reappointment of Smith to the rank of vice admiral and the promotion of Jackson to the rank of vice admiral.

Smith has served as commander of the Navy Installations Command since Oct. 24, 2014 and previously commanded USS The Sullivans, Naval Base San Diego, Navy Region Hawaii, Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, Navy Region Southwest and Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.

He also worked as a seamanship instructor aide to the naval inspector general at the Newport, Rhode Island-based Naval Education and Training Center and deputy executive assistant to commander in chief of allied forces, Southern Europe/commander in chief at the U.S. Naval Forces in Europe.

Jackson has led the Navy Region Southeast in Jacksonville, Florida since July 18, 2014 and previously served as chief of staff to the commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.

Before that, she held the roles of seamanship and navigation instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, theater air and missile defense officer at the U.S. Joint Forces Command, flag secretary to commander at Naval Surface Forces within the Atlantic Fleet and head of surface junior officer assignments at Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee.

She also previously was executive officer at Naval Station Norfolk and commander of Naval Station Norfolk.

Her previous at-sea duty assignments include time as assistant operations officer and navigator on USS Willamette, operations officer on USS Briscoe, operations officer on USS Vella Gulf and executive officer of USS Stout.

This story was originally published on November 17, 2017.

President Donald Trump has announced plans to nominate David Norquist, a partner at Alexandria, Virginia-based certified public accounting firm Kearney and Co., as defense undersecretary, comptroller.

Trump revealed his plans to name Norquist and five other individuals to several positions at the Defense Department in a news release published Thursday.

Norquist is a 27-year financial management professional in the federal government who started his career at the Department of the Army as a budget analyst for four years.

In this role, he was responsible for the development of the service branch’s budget for the National Foreign Intelligence Program.

He spent three years at the Army Intelligence and Security Command, where he served as director of resource management and prepared the budget for the Consolidated Cryptologic Program as a budget analyst.

Prior to Kearney, Norquist served as chief financial officer at the Department of Homeland Security from 2006 to 2008 and provided oversight of the agency’s financial management operations.

He spent more than three years at DoD as deputy defense undersecretary and served as a member of the staff of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subpanel.

This story was originally published on March 20, 2017.