The Senate last week approved Lt. Gen. Larry James for reappointment to three-star rank for his new assignment overseeing intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance matters on the Air Staff. James will replace Lt. Gen. David Deptula, who formally retired on Oct. 1. James has led 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic-Space) at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., since December 2008. Taking over at 14th AF is Maj. Gen. Susan Helms, whom the Senate approved last week for promotion to the rank of lieutenant general for the assignment. She’s been director of plans and policy for U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt AFB, Neb., since November 2008.
Special-ops aviators, a physicist from the intelligence community, and an enlisted Marine with decades of deployments: U.S. Space Command’s military and civilian leaders who spoke May 7 were as likely to come from strictly space backgrounds as not. These are some of the day’s insights from inside the command, which…