Hawaii or Illinois. Truly paying the price for promotion
Know what you're saying
, but he'd been out there a while. Time for someone else to have some fun. 3 & 4 star types, regardless of service, typically only have two years in the job before they have to move to another billet or go home.
In reality, getting the 4th star & becoming a USAF functional commander makes him eligible to roll back to Indo-Pac or any of the other regional commands as the theater component (AFCENT, USAFE-AFR, AFSOUTH, INDO-PACAF, et al) boss in a couple of years. Mikey the Elder, like Mikey the Younger, is still a player.