The NATO alliance this week is getting a new supreme commander, a former top-ranking U.S. military officer in Korea hailed Tuesday by Defense Secretary Ash Carter as a proven warrior-diplomat and "a soldiers’ general." 


U.S. Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, 60, was installed as head of the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, and will become NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe. He will be the 18th U.S. officer to hold the post since Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first NATO supreme commander in 1951. 


The commander, by tradition an American general or admiral, is responsible for the overall direction and conduct of NATO’s global military operations. The 28-nation alliance is now confronted by simultaneous security challenges ranging from a resurgent Russia to armed Islamic extremism and a migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. 


In both new posts, Scaparrotti is assuming command from U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, a former F-16 pilot who helped lead the NATO alliance during the most sweeping revamp of its collective defense capabilities since the Cold War. Carter praised Breedlove’s "visionary" leadership, saying that in his three years as SACEUR, "NATO forces have been writing a new playbook" to face modern threats and challenges

Source: NNA