After more than a month of a leadership vacuum atop the National Guard, the general nominated to be the next chief of the National Guard Bureau took a key step forward Thursday as he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Lt. Gen. Steven Nordhaus, right now a top Air Force officer with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, breezed through a genial confirmation hearing before the committee, suggesting he could soon be confirmed to lead the National Guard Bureau. As the hearing wrapped, committee Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., told Nordhaus and Vice Adm. Alvin Holsey, the nominee to be U.S. Southern Command chief who also testified at the hearing, he hoped to approve their appointments with “diligence and speed.”
If confirmed, Nordhaus would take over leadership of the National Guard at a time when the service has been increasingly relied upon for a broad range of missions, some of which are far outside its normal scope. In addition to having to respond to natural disasters that are more frequent and more destructive because of climate change, the Guard has also been tapped by governors to fill labor shortages completely unrelated to military training such as school bus drivers and corrections officers.
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Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the ranking member of the committee, told Nordhaus that his most difficult task…
