President Barack Obama nominated Ashton Carter to replace Chuck Hagel as defense secretary on Friday morning. "Ash is rightly regarded as one of our nation’s foremost national security leaders," Obama said of Carter, who served in the Pentagon's number two job until December of last year. “He is going to hit the ground running.” Carter, a Philadelphia native who earned degrees in both physics and medieval history from Yale University, has served under 11 Defense secretaries. If confirmed, he will become Obama's fourth Secretary of Defense in six years. Hagel did not attend the announcement ceremony. He said he wanted the day to be focused on Carter.
