Trump picks Marine to be next Joint Chiefs vice chairman
President Donald Trump has nominated Marine Corps Gen. Christopher Mahoney to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. military’s second-highest ranking officer.
The role is currently held by Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, who is nearing the end of his scheduled term in that position.
Trump submitted Mahoney’s nomination for the role to the Senate on June 17, and it’s been referred to the Armed Services Committee for consideration, according to a notice posted on Congress.gov.
The vice chairman of the JCS plays a key role in the Defense Department as chair of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council and a senior adviser on technology-related initiatives.
Mahoney is currently serving as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, a role he’s held since November 2023. For several months, he also performed the duties of commandant while Gen. Eric Smith was recovering from a cardiac arrest episode and open-heart surgery. The Marine Corps commandant is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He previously served as deputy commander of U.S. Marine Forces Pacific; director of strategy and Plans at HQMC; deputy commander of U.S. Forces, Japan; commanding general of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing; and deputy commandant for programs and resources, HQMC, among other assignments.
Mahoney, a TOPGUN graduate, rose through the ranks of the Corps’ aviation community and has over 5,000 hours of flight time in the A-6, F-5, F-18 and F-35. He’s held command at the squadron, group and wing levels, and is also a qualified forward air controller and parachutist, according to his official bio.
He has noted the importance of the U.S. military improving its networking capabilities and focusing on software-driven technologies.
“There are more networks out there than probably a Cray computer can count. There needs to be unification of a network concept. And there needs to be a change in the way we think about hardware so that … it’s the software that drives the hardware, not the hardware that drives the software,” Mahoney said last year at a Hudson Institute event.
