Pentagon fills more senior posts

The Pentagon announced three newly appointed senior officials today, one of whom was a Trump campaign surrogate.

Sergio de la Peña has been appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs. He was most recently the CEO of de la Peña Consulting, LLC, “where he developed and executed business strategies to strengthen relationships between U.S. businesses and Latin American governments,” according to the Pentagon. Before that, de la Peña, a retired Army colonel, worked as an executive at L3. He also served as a Trump surrogate during the presidential campaign.

Stephen Kitay has been appointed deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy. He is a retired Air Force officer. He was most recently a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee, where he served as the national security space expert and oversaw budgets, policies and programs.

Vayl Oxford has been appointed director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. He was most recently a national security executive policy adviser at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.