According to a statement released by his family on Tuesday, Ash Carter, a former defense secretary for the United States under President Obama, passed away late on Monday just at age of 68 from a sudden cardiac attack. The former secretary of defense’s family released a statement on Tuesday, saying, “It is with profound and overwhelming regret that the family of Secretary Carter communicates that Secretary Carter sadly died Monday in Boston after the sudden cardiac attack at the age of 68.
Carter Annulled Ban On Transgender
Carter abolished a ban on publicly serving transgender servicemen and women and opened up all military positions to women. He was quite critical of Donald Trump’s decision to reinstate the ban in 2017. Carter held the positions of chief operations officer and deputy defense secretary in the Pentagon before being appointed defense secretary. When he handled a significant reworking of the F-35 jet fighter program from 2009 to 2011, he also supervised the Defense Department’s acquisition of weaponry.
At the time, the trucks that US troops were driving lacked proper protection, resulting in thousands of US soldiers being injured or killed by wayside explosives. Carter usually cited the quick creation and acquisition of such vehicles as among his greatest successes. At its peak, the United States sent approximately 1,000 MRAPs to theatres each month. At a ceremony to celebrate the end of the vehicle’s manufacture in 2012, Carter remarked that there, people had saved lives. And as you are well aware, if I could have gotten one through the door today, I would have pushed one in.
Ash Carter, who served as secretary of defense in the final two years of the Obama administration and opened military jobs to women and ended a ban on transgender people serving in the military, has died at age 68. https://t.co/GEuVNdoRCq
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 25, 2022
Carter Issued Order To Hire Women
After 3 years of research and discussion, Carter issued the order to hire women for all positions in December 2015, removing the last remaining obstacles preventing women from participating in combat, even the most hazardous and taxing commando positions. The restriction on transgender soldiers deployed in the US army was lifted the next year, according to Carter, who justified it as the correct thing to do. In the statement from his family, they noted that Carter “always put the politics aside; he served leaders of both parties over 5 administrations, holding different posts inside the Department of Defense.”
Carter received his ph.d. in theoretical physics at Oxford University, as well as on least, he even discussed black holes with the media that was accompanying him abroad. He was viewed less as a politician but also as a technocrat inside the Pentagon. He attempted, with varying degrees of success, to close the enormous gap that existed between Silicon Valley and the Pentagon to more quickly introduce technology advancements to the Defense Department. Carter, a longtime defense expert who progressively rose to the top position at the Pentagon, assisted in overseeing the implementation of a military plan to contain and ultimately destroy the Islamic State terror network in Iraq and Syria.
Carter’s “insights and viewpoints will be challenging to replicate and his humor and reverence for the troops greatly missed,” according to a statement from Robert Gates, a former defense secretary & director of the CIA. Also as 25th defense secretary, Carter, a native of Philadelphia, “liked nothing more than sharing more time with the military, making frequent visits to Iraq & Afghanistan to see US forces alongside his wife Stephanie,” according to a statement from his family.
Carter’s advice, according to former president Barack Obama, helped make the military “greater, wiser, more humanitarian, and more effective.” Carter oversaw the Belfer Center of Science & International Affairs in Harvard’s Kennedy School after leaving the public sector. Stephanie, Carter’s wife, and their kids Will and Ava are left behind.
FAQs
1. When did Ash Carter die?
Ans. 24 October 2022
2. Who is the wife of Ash Carter?
Ans. Stephanie Carter
3. What are the names of Ash Carter’s kids?
Ans. Will and Ava
4. When did Ash Carter serve as a U.S. defense secretary?
Ans. During Obama Administration
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