Defense Secretary Ash Carter launched a "SECDEF" Facebook page Friday, becoming the first Pentagon chief to stake out his official space on the popular social media site.
"I am here in Singapore and today I got to fly with some of the best pilots in the military aboard a MV-22 Osprey as we flew over one of the most important waterways in the world," Carter wrote in his first post.
Carter is in Singapore for a meeting of Asian defense ministers and he was referring to the Straits of Malacca, a strategic choke point for global energy trade routes.
The page features a photo of Carter chatting with a group of sailors wearing "blueberry" working uniforms.
The defense secretary's office does not maintain a Twitter account for Carter. The account named "@secdef" is currently taken by another user.
Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.
