{"id":175221,"date":"2025-10-17T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=175221"},"modified":"2025-10-17T07:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:00:48","slug":"commander-us-southern-command-retires-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=175221","title":{"rendered":"Commander, US Southern Command Retires Early"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-175222 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/holsey-300x220.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/holsey-300x220.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/holsey-454x333.webp 454w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/holsey.webp 474w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\n<em>Admiral Alvin Holsey<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Admiral Overseeing Caribbean Mission to Retire after One Year in Role<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Heather Mongilio<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The head of U.S. Southern Command, which is overseeing the Trump administration\u2019s ongoing military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean, will retire just over one year into his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>Adm. Alvin Holsey assumed command in November 2024. The commanders of combatant commands typically serve in the role for three years.<\/p>\n<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who announced Holsey\u2019s retirement Thursday on social media site X, did not specify when exactly Holsey will relinquish command of SOUTHCOM, saying it would be by the \u201cyear\u2019s end.\u201d The command is currently one of the more active COCOMs, with eight Navy ships operating in the region, including the ships making up the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and three independent destroyers, according to the USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis tenure as Military Deputy Commander and now Commander of United States Southern Command reflects a legacy of operational excellence and strategic vision,\u201d Hegseth wrote in the post. \u201cThe Department thanks Admiral Holsey for his decades of service to our country, and we wish him and his family continued success and fulfillment in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Holsey assumed command from Army Gen. Laura Richardson. He previously served as the military deputy commander of SOUTHCOM.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2025\/10\/16\/admiral-overseeing-caribbean-mission-to-retire-after-one-year-in-role\">USNI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When Admiral Holsey assumed command, then SECDEF Lloyd Austin opined the turn-over was historic because the occasion marked \u201cThe first woman commander of SOUTHCOM passes the baton to the first African American commander of SOUTHCOM.\u201d Mark your calendar.<\/p>\n<p>This is the fatal flaw of DEI- was he the very best for the job, or was his advancement based on other factors? Before DEI there would be no question. As for retiring, according to the New York Times he has expressed misgivings over the recent deadly, kinetic strikes on drug smugglers operating in international waters. If he cannot support the mission this is the honorable course to take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Admiral Alvin Holsey Admiral Overseeing Caribbean Mission to Retire after One Year in Role Heather Mongilio &hellip; <a title=\"Commander, US Southern Command Retires Early\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=175221\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Commander, US Southern Command Retires Early<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":175222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[703],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/175222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}