President-Elect Barack Obama will nominate four to fill key Pentagon posts when his administration takes office. The nominees will face a Jan. 15 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. They are:
* William J. Lynn III, to be deputy secretary of defense. Lynn, a senior fellow at the National Defense University, served as the Defense Department’s comptroller from 1997 to 2001;
* Robert F. Hale, to be undersecretary of defense (comptroller). Hale, who served as the Air Force’s finance chief from 1994 to 2001, is now the executive director of the American Society of Military Comptrollers;
* Michele Flournoy, to be undersecretary of defense (policy). Now the president of the Center for a New American Security, a think tank she cofounded, Flournoy previously oversaw the Pentagon’s strategy, requirements, plans, and counterproliferation office;
* Jeh Charles Johnson, to be general counsel. Johnson previously served as the Air Force general counsel during the Clinton administration. He now is a partner in a New York law firm.