Pentagon names new press secretary

WASHINGTON ― Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin introduced Thursday that Air Power Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a veteran spokesman on the Pentagon, would be the division’s subsequent press secretary.

Ryder, the Air Power public affairs director, replaces John Kirby, who left the Pentagon in Might to turned a White Home spokesman on nationwide safety issues.

Then-Rear Adm. Kirby was the final uniformed officer to carry the job, underneath then-Protection Secretary Chuck Hagel. Then-Protection Secretary Ash Carter changed Kirby with Peter Cook dinner, a former journalist, in 2015.

Ryder served as spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Employees from 2017 to 2019. He labored for Austin from 2013 to 2016 as his high spokesman at U.S. Central Command when Austin was the commander.

In a press release, Austin mentioned Ryder would lead the Pentagon’s “efforts to supply well timed, correct data to the media, and thru the media to the American folks.” Austin praised Ryder’s “wealth of expertise, together with joint and deployed assignments that may serve him properly as he informs the media of our actions around the globe.”