U.S. Air Force General John E. Hyten, the current head of the U.S. Strategic Command who grew up in Huntsville, has been nominated to be the next vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.
Hyten wasn’t born in Huntsville but moved to the city in 1965 where his father worked for NASA on the Saturn V rocket. He graduated from Grissom High School and earned an undergraduate degree in engineering from Harvard and an MBA from Auburn University at Montgomery.
In his new position, Hyten will work alongside Army Gen. Mark Milley, who will be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He must be approved by the Senate..
Hyten is currently America’s top nuclear commander and has commanded the U.S. Strategic Command since 2016. He also headed the Air Force Space Command and is an advocate of space-based defenses for U.S. assets.
“Every military operation that takes place on the planet today is fundamentally tied to space some way or the other,” Hyten said in a 2015 speech in Huntsville about the changing nature of war. “Then you realize that change has to happen now.”
Hyten has returned to his boyhood home to participate in military and space-related events such as the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual spring meeting. He used Huntsville as an example of change for the better in a 2015 Armed Forces Week speech. “Change is not a bad thing,” Hyten said. “Look at Huntsville today and at the Huntsville of 1966, it’s amazing.”