Washington DC [USA], May 10 (ANI): US President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan to the post of Defence Secretary, which fell vacant after James Mattis had resigned last year, the White House said.Based upon his outstanding service to the country and his demonstrated ability to lead, President Trump intends to nominate Patrick M. Shanahan to be the Secretary of Defence," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement."Acting Secretary Shanahan has served in high profile positions, including the Deputy Secretary of Defense and Vice President of Supply Chain and Operations at Boeing. He has proven over the last several months that he is beyond qualified to lead the Department of Defence, and he will continue to do an excellent job," she added.Before joining the Trump administration, Shanahan has been a part of American aerospace major Boeing for over three decades.The 56-year-old Shanahan is a trained mechanical engineer and has a master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.In March 2017, Trump had nominated Shanahan to the post of Deputy Defence Secretary. He was confirmed by the Senate with a vote of 92-7 in July that year.In December last year, Mattis had tendered his resignation to Trump, after he announced that he would withdraw all US troops stationed in Syria, claiming that the ISIS terror group was defeated.Following Mattis' resignation, Shanahan was roped in as the acting Defence Secretary on January 1, 2019. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)