Air Force General Lori J. Robinson has become the first woman to lead a top-tier U.S. fighting command.

Robinson took over today – as leader of the North American Aerospace Defence Command and U.S. Northern Command in Colorado,

She was installed during a ceremony attended by U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter and General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Carter praised Robinson as “a strategic thinker capable of making split-second life-and-death decisions.”

He also said Robinson and her husband, David Robinson, understand the difficulties that military families face – in reference  to the death of David Robinson’s daughter – following a pilot training accident.