Shanahan headed to Pacific Northwest

By Justin Doubleday / November 13, 2017 at 2:03 PM

(Editor's Note: This post has been updated with information from a Pentagon statement.)

Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is making his first international trip as the Pentagon's No. 2 official this week, as he heads to Vancouver, Canada, to attend a United Nations conference on peacekeeping before visiting U.S. military bases in the Pacific Northwest.

Shanahan will travel to Vancouver tomorrow to attend the second annual UN Peacekeeping Defense Ministerial, according to Defense Department spokesman Col. Rob Manning. More than 500 delegates from more than 70 countries will attend the event Nov. 14-15 to discuss improvements to UN peacekeeping operations, according to the event page on the Canadian government's website.

The deputy secretary will then visit bases in the Pacific Northwest "to engage with military leadership and service members," Manning told reporters today. He will visit Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state, according to a Nov. 13 DOD statement.

"This will be the first opportunity for Secretary Shanahan to observe military unit readiness firsthand outside of the Washington, District of Columbia area," the statement continues.

A former Boeing executive, Shanahan is a native of Washington state. His trip to the area comes a few months after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis did a West Coast swing involving visits to Naval Base Kitsap and Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, WA.

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