U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who heads the Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet, speaks

A new leader for U.S. Central Command has been approved by the Senate at a precarious time for U.S. forces and policy in the Middle East.

In a voice vote over the weekend slipped in while senators remained in Washington, D.C., to debate the Trump administration's mega domestic policy bill, the Senate confirmed Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to be the new chief of Central Command and to earn a fourth star.

Cooper will take the helm of U.S. forces in the Middle East as U.S.-Iran tensions simmer following President Donald Trump's decision earlier this month to strike three Iranian nuclear facilities in support of an Israeli military campaign.

Read Next: Army ROTC Programs at Dozens of Campuses Are Being Shut Down or Reorganized[1]

After the U.S. strikes, Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, and he's also expressed a willingness to resume diplomacy on a deal to constrain Iran's nuclear program.

But while there is a lull in fighting right now, Trump also said on Friday that he would "without question, absolutely" consider striking Iran again if U.S. intelligence concludes the previous strikes did not in fact completely destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities as Trump claims. And two days before the Senate confirmed Cooper, senators voted against limiting[2] Trump's ability to strike Iran again.

At his confirmation hearing earlier this month[3], Cooper testified that, while the U.S. and Israeli operations against Iran degraded its capabilities, it still poses a threat to American forces in the region. He cited Iran's retaliatory missile attack against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, one of the largest American military bases in the region, as an example of Tehran's continued threat to the U.S.

No U.S. casualties were reported in the strike on Al Udeid, but Trump has said Iran gave him advanced warning of the attack[4].

Cooper has served as the deputy commander of Central Command since last year after previously serving as the commander of Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. Fifth Fleet for three years. He will take the top spot at Central Command from Gen. Erik Kurilla, whose term is expiring.

In the same voice vote as Cooper's confirmation, senators also confirmed Gen. Alexus Grynkewich to become the next head of U.S. European Command. He was formally sworn into the role Tuesday, according to a social media post from the Joint Staff.

Grynkewich is also stepping into his role as head of European Command at a pivotal time for U.S. forces in that region.

While Trump came away from a recent NATO summit pleased with allies' commitment to stepping up their defense spending, he has a history of questioning American alliances in Europe and threatening to pull U.S. forces from the region.

At the beginning of Trump's current term, several reports said he was considering giving up[5] U.S. military leadership of NATO, a role that has been held by an American general since the alliance's inception. But when the administration announced Grynkewich's[6] nomination to be European Command leader, it also confirmed he would simultaneously serve as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

Related: Iran Still Threat to US Forces in Middle East Despite Strikes, Admiral Says[7]

© Copyright 2025 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here[8].

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Nurse prepares vaccines at MCAS Iwakuni

Months after the Pentagon rolled out a policy aimed at wooing back service members booted from the military over the COVID-19 vaccine, the Pentagon has confirmed that only 13 people -- all Army[1] soldiers -- have rejoined.

Shortly after coming back to office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that[2], while short on details, mandated the military reinstate troops who refused the vaccine with "full back pay[3], benefits, bonus payments, or compensation."

The Pentagon then spent months articulating that order into a policy that was rolled out in April[4] and, while making good on the promise of back pay, it came with some major administrative hurdles and the caveat of yearslong military commitments.

Read Next: Constraints on Trump's War Powers Rejected by Senate After Iran Strikes[5]

In late April, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trumpeted the policy, telling a group of troops at the Army War College[6] that those who refused the vaccine were "warriors of conscience" and that "we hope they come back quickly."

Several days later, the Pentagon's "Rapid Response" account said[7] that "we have reinstated these vital members with BACKPAY" before proclaiming that "this is the Golden Age for our service members."

From 2023 until April, service members had always been able to return to military service -- though without any incentives or back pay. Only 113 of the more than 8,000 discharged service members had chosen to do so.

Yet according to a Defense Department official, after the new policy rolled out, they received interest from around 700 people across the five military services. The biggest interest came from 418 discharged Marines, while the lowest was from the Air Force[8], which had 56 people come forward.

Of those 700, only 97 took the necessary second step of moving forward with having their military records reviewed and corrected.

According to Navy[9] documents released in April[10], a discharged sailor interested in reinstatement would be entitled to back pay but minus anything they earned while out of the military -- and that offer was also contingent on a four-year commitment[11].

The document explained that what leaders like Trump have called "full back pay" was actually a "financial benefit."

Navy officials would take all the basic pay, food and housing allowances, and bonuses that a sailor would have earned had they stayed in but then deduct any wages that were earned while they were a civilian, as well as any VA disability payments[12], among other payouts.

Service members would be presented with that figure ahead of their decision to return or not.

According to data shown to Military.com, of those 97 people, only 13 Army soldiers had been reinstated between the beginning of April and the end of May.

The figure stands in sharp contrast to the enthusiasm with which most of the services pushed out news of the updated policy on social media[13] in the spring. The Army even bragged that "about 150 soldiers"[14] had taken some step toward rejoining in early April.

However, the Pentagon's data from the end of May showed that the Army seemed to make little progress on that figure, reporting that the service had 141 interested people and 43 more going through records review.

Meanwhile, Tim Dill, a senior official with the Pentagon's Office of Personnel and Readiness, told reporters in April that an initial group of just over 100 service members -- those who chose to return ahead of the back pay policy -- would not benefit from the new plan.

"The department is also grateful for their decision to return," he said but added that "there is not currently a mechanism that we have provided for them to put in for the same calculations that we're doing for those that would return today."

Anyone still interested in returning under the new policy has until April 1, 2026, to seek reinstatement.

Related: Troops Booted over COVID-19 Vaccine Are Being Offered Back Pay But Not Huge Payouts[15]

© Copyright 2025 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here[16].

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