John Earl Hyten is a retired United States Air Force general who served as the 11th vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2019 to 2021. A career space operations and acquisitions officer, he commanded the United States Strategic Command from 2016 to 2019 and the Air Force Space Command from 2014 to 2016.
Official portrait, 2021
Hyten at the Halifax International Security Forum 2017
Hyten, commander of the United States Strategic Command, poses for a photo with Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan on April 19, 2018.
Hyten is sworn in as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on November 18, 2019.
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (VJCS) is, by U.S. law, the second highest-ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, ranking just below the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The vice chairman outranks all respective heads of each service branch, with the exception of the chairman, but does not have operational command authority over their service branches. The vice chairman assists the chairman in exercising their duties. In the absence of the chairman, the vice chairman presides over the meetings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and performs all other duties prescribed under 10 U.S.C. § 153 and may also perform other duties that the president, the chairman, or the secretary of defense prescribes.
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Image: Gen Robert T. Herres, VJCS portrait
Image: ADM David E Jeremiah
Image: Adm. William A. Owens VJCS