This from Air Force Times: Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, an 86-year-old veteran of World War II, appears to have lost his seat as chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Senate Democrats are expected to vote this week to give the veterans committee post to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

Akaka will become chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, according Senate and outside sources.

"This is not much of a secret," said a consultant who works with many veterans groups. "Akaka's staff was told about this some time ago."

Age appears to be a factor in the decision to replace Akaka with Murray, a 60-year-old four-term senator who is part of the Democratic leadership and a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

Murray was the first woman appointed to the veterans' committee when she was seated on the panel in 1995, which means she also will be its first chairwoman.

The House Veterans' Affairs Committee was headed by a woman, Rep. Edith Nourse Rogers, R-Maine, twice, in 1947-48 and again in 1953-54.

Murray has actively pushed for many improvements in veterans' benefits, including employment help, better health care for women and more money for treating war-related injuries, particularly traumatic brain injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

An Akaka spokesman said there would be no comment from Akaka's office until the Senate approves the new organization.

But one aide called it "certainly a depressing situation."

Murray's office also declined to comment until the Senate finishes committee assignments and makes a formal announcement.

Akaka, a native Hawaiian who witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, went on to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers at the end of the war. He often talks of how the World War II GI Bill helped pay for his college education.

Murray never served in the military, but her father was a disabled World War II veteran. "I know firsthand about the service and sacrifices of our veterans and their families," she said last summer as she was seeking re-election to a fourth term in the Senate.

Murray will not be the first nonveteran to head the panel. The four chairmen who proceeded Akaka - Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho; Arlen Spector, R-Pa., John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va.; and Alan Simpson, R-Wyo. - never served in the military.

The current House Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., is a nonveteran, as is his immediate predecessor, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif.