Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass on Tuesday received their vaccinations against COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The Air Force posted photos of the service’s top officer and enlisted leader on its official Twitter account the same day. Brown soon retweeted that post and said he was “thankful” that he and Bass were administered the vaccine.
Bass also tweeted a selfie taken in her office along with Chief Master Sgt. Mike Perry, the Air Force first sergeant special duty manager, giving the thumbs up, and said “Didn’t even feel it!”
The leaders tweeted their photos amid a push to encourage military personnel to get vaccinated when they are able. The military is not at this moment requiring service members to take the COVID vaccine.
In the Air Force’s tweet, the service also urged personnel who are prioritized to receive the vaccine to take it “to protect their health, their communities, & to lower the public health risks associated w/ the COVID-19 pandemic.”
After Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Vice Chairman Gen. John Hyten, and Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman Ramón Colón-López received the vaccine last month, Brown also retweeted photos of their vaccinations.
“Your safety and the well-being of our airmen are paramount,” Brown wrote in his Dec. 28 tweet.
Brown, along with much of the military’s top leadership, went into quarantine last October after being exposed to the coronavirus. Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard Charles Ray tested positive for coronavirus that month, after being in meetings with Brown and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top generals. Brown did not test positive for the coronavirus.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
