The former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, was given tactical command of the Reach Theatre of Operations after Reach HighCom was overrun by covenant forces. He and a number of Spartan-II personnel were rescued by the survivors of the Halo conflict, and he eventually met his death crashing a captured Covenant ship into an enemy space installation. It is unknown whether a new Deputy Chief of Naval Operations has been appointed.