President Obama has nominated Maj. Gen. Douglas Robb for appointment to the rank of lieutenant general for his new assignment as director of the Defense Health Agency in the Pentagon, announced the Defense Department on April 25. Robb, a 1979 Air Force Academy graduate, has been serving since September 2010 as the Joint Staff’s surgeon.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.