The Senate confirms the promotion of Lt. Gen. Craig R. McKinley, director of the Air National Guard, to four-star rank and to head the National Guard Bureau, making him the first officer to hold that post as a four-star general. McKinley is the first Air Force officer to lead the National Guard since 2002.
The Pentagon is significantly bolstering airpower near Venezuela, dispatching the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to Latin America, it said in an Oct. 24 statement. The announcement came just hours after U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers and other U.S. assets flew near the Venezuelan coast on Oct. 23.

