United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the leader and chief executive officer of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the Armed Forces of the U. S; the Secretary of Defense's position of command and authority over the U. S. military is second only to that of the Congress, respectively. This position corresponds to what is known as a Defense Minister in many other countries; the Secretary of Defense is appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council. Secretary of Defense is a statutory office, the general provision in 10 U. S. C. § 113 provides that the Secretary of Defense has "authority and control over the Department of Defense", is further designated by the same statute as "the principal assistant to the President in all matters relating to the Department of Defense". To ensure civilian control of the military, no one may be appointed as Secretary of Defense within seven years of serving as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force.
Subject only to the orders of the President, the Secretary of Defense is in the chain of command and exercises command and control, for both operational and administrative purposes, over all Department of Defense forces — the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force — as well as the U. S. Coast Guard when its control is transferred to the Department of Defense. Only the Secretary of Defense can authorize the transfer of operational control of forces between the three Military Departments and the 10 Combatant Commands; because the Office of Secretary of Defense is vested with legal powers which exceed those of any commissioned officer, is second only to the President in the military hierarchy, its incumbent has sometimes unofficially been referred to as a de facto "deputy commander-in-chief". The Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury are regarded as heading the four most important departments. Since January 1, 2019, the Secretary of Defense has been Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan, serving in an acting capacity.
His predecessor, Jim Mattis, resigned on December 20, 2018, effective February 2019, after failing to persuade President Donald Trump to reconsider a decision to withdraw U. S. troops from Syria. A few days Trump announced that Mattis would leave at the end of December. An Army and Marine Corps were established in 1775, in concurrence with the American Revolution; the War Department, headed by the Secretary of War, was created by Act of Congress in 1789 and was responsible for both the Army and Navy until the founding of a separate Department of the Navy in 1798. Based on the experiences of World War II, proposals were soon made on how to more manage the large combined military establishment; the Army favored centralization while the Navy had institutional preferences for decentralization and the status quo. The resulting National Security Act of 1947 was a compromise between these divergent viewpoints; the Act split the Department of War into the Department of the Army and Department of the Navy and established the National Military Establishment, presided over by the Secretary of Defense.
The Act separated the Army Air Forces from the Army to become its own branch of service, the United States Air Force. At first, each of the service secretaries maintained cabinet status; the first Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal, who in his previous capacity as Secretary of the Navy had opposed creation of the new position, found it difficult to exercise authority over the other branches with the limited powers his office had at the time. To address this and other problems, the National Security Act was amended in 1949 to further consolidate the national defense structure in order to reduce interservice rivalry, directly subordinate the Secretaries of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to the Secretary of Defense in the chain of command, rename the National Military Establishment as the Department of Defense, making it one Executive Department; the position of the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the number two position in the department, was created at this time. The general trend since 1949 has been to further centralize management in the Department of Defense, elevating the status and authorities of civilian OSD appointees and defense-wide organizations at the expense of the military departments and the services within them.
The last major revision of the statutory framework concerning the position was done in the Goldwater–Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. In particular, it elevated the status of joint service for commissioned officers, making it in practice a requirement before appointments to general officer and flag officer grades could be made; the Secretary of Defense, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is by federal law the head of the Department of Defense, "the principal assistant to the President in all matters relating to Department of Defense", has "authority and control over the Department of Defense". Because the Constitution vests all military a
General Counsel of the Army
The General Counsel of the Army is the chief legal officer of the U. S. Department of the Army and senior legal advisor to the Secretary of the Army. U. S. law provides that the General Counsel shall be appointed from the civilian life by the President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, that the Secretary of the Army prescribes the duties of the office. The Office of the General Counsel of the Army provides legal advice to the Under Secretary of the Army and the five Assistant Secretaries of the Army, as well as other members of the Army Secretariat; the General Counsel of the Army plays a role in supervising the Office of the Judge Advocate General and the Office of the Chief Counsel of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. General Counsel of the Department of Defense General Counsel of the Air Force General Counsel of the Navy Office of the General Counsel
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation between 1781 and 1789. Benjamin Lincoln and Henry Knox held the position; when Washington was inaugurated as the first president under the Constitution, he appointed Knox to continue serving as Secretary of War. The Secretary of War was the head of the War Department. At first, he was responsible including naval affairs. In 1798, the Secretary of the Navy was created by statute, the scope of responsibility for this office was reduced to the affairs of the United States Army. From 1886 onward, the Secretary of War was in the line of succession to the presidency, after the Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tem of the Senate and the Secretary of State.
In 1947, with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947, the Secretary of War was replaced by the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Air Force, along with the Secretary of the Navy, have since 1949 been non-Cabinet subordinates under the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of the Army's office is considered the direct successor to the Secretary of War's office although the Secretary of Defense took the Secretary of War's position in the Cabinet, the line of succession to the presidency; the office of Secretary at War was modelled upon Great Britain's Secretary at War, William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, at the time of the American Revolution. The office of Secretary at War was meant to replace both the Commander-in-Chief and the Board of War, like the President of the Board, the Secretary wore no special insignia; the Inspector General, Quartermaster General, Commissary General, Adjutant General served on the Secretary's staff. However, the Army itself under Secretary Henry Knox only consisted of 700 men.
Parties No party Federalist Democratic-Republican Democratic Whig Republican Confederate States Secretary of War Bell, William Gardner. Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff 1775-2005: Portraits and Biographical Sketches. Washington, D. C.: United States Army Center of Military History. Grossman, Mark. Encyclopedia of the United States Cabinet 1789-2010. Armenia, New York: Greyhouse Publishing. King, Archibald. Command of the Army. Military Affairs. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Judge Advocate General's School, U. S. Army
Chief executive officer
The chief executive officer or just chief executive, is the most senior corporate, executive, or administrative officer in charge of managing an organization – an independent legal entity such as a company or nonprofit institution. CEOs lead a range of organizations, including public and private corporations, non-profit organizations and some government organizations; the CEO of a corporation or company reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the entity, which may include maximizing the share price, market share, revenues or another element. In the non-profit and government sector, CEOs aim at achieving outcomes related to the organization's mission, such as reducing poverty, increasing literacy, etc. In the early 21st century, top executives had technical degrees in science, engineering or law; the responsibility of an organization's CEO are set by the organization's board of directors or other authority, depending on the organization's legal structure.
They can be far-reaching or quite limited and are enshrined in a formal delegation of authority. Responsibilities include being a decision maker on strategy and other key policy issues, leader and executor; the communicator role can involve speaking to the press and the rest of the outside world, as well as to the organization's management and employees. As a leader of the company, the CEO or MD advises the board of directors, motivates employees, drives change within the organization; as a manager, the CEO/MD presides over the organization's day-to-day operations. The term refers to the person who makes all the key decisions regarding the company, which includes all sectors and fields of the business, including operations, business development, human resources, etc; the CEO of a company is not the owner of the company. In some countries, there is a dual board system with two separate boards, one executive board for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board for control purposes. In these countries, the CEO presides over the executive board and the chairman presides over the supervisory board, these two roles will always be held by different people.
This ensures a distinction between management by the executive board and governance by the supervisory board. This allows for clear lines of authority; the aim is to prevent a conflict of interest and too much power being concentrated in the hands of one person. In the United States, the board of directors is equivalent to the supervisory board, while the executive board may be known as the executive committee. In the United States, in business, the executive officers are the top officers of a corporation, the chief executive officer being the best-known type; the definition varies. In the case of a sole proprietorship, an executive officer is the sole proprietor. In the case of a partnership, an executive officer is a managing partner, senior partner, or administrative partner. In the case of a limited liability company, executive officer is any manager, or officer. A CEO has several subordinate executives, each of whom has specific functional responsibilities referred to as senior executives, executive officers or corporate officers.
Subordinate executives are given different titles in different organizations, but one common category of subordinate executive, if the CEO is the president, is the vice-president. An organization may have more than one vice-president, each tasked with a different area of responsibility; some organizations have subordinate executive officers who have the word chief in their job title, such as chief operating officer, chief financial officer and chief technology officer. The public relations-focused position of chief reputation officer is sometimes included as one such subordinate executive officer, but, as suggested by Anthony Johndrow, CEO of Reputation Economy Advisors, it can be seen as "simply another way to add emphasis to the role of a modern-day CEO – where they are both the external face of, the driving force behind, an organisation culture". In the US, the term chief executive officer is used in business, whereas the term executive director is used in the not-for-profit sector; these terms are mutually exclusive and refer to distinct legal duties and responsibilities.
Implicit in the use of these titles, is that the public not be misled and the general standard regarding their use be applied. In the UK, chief executive and chief executive officer are used in both business and the charitable sector; as of 2013, the use of the term director for senior charity staff is deprecated to avoid confusion with the legal duties and responsibilities associated with being a charity director or trustee, which are non-executive roles. In the United Kingdom, the term director is used instead of chief officer". Business publicists since the days of Edward Bernays and his client John D. Rockefeller and more the corporate publicists for Henry Ford, promoted the concept of the "celebrity CEO". Business journalists have adopted this approach, which assumes that the corporate achievements in the arena of manufacturing, wer
United States Under Secretary of the Army
The United States Under Secretary of the Army is the second-highest ranking civilian official of the United States Department of the Army, serving directly under the United States Secretary of the Army. The Secretary and Under Secretary, together with two military officers, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army and the Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army, constitute the senior leaders of the United States Army; the following officials report to the Under Secretary of the Army: the Assistant Secretary of the Army, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, the General Counsel of the Army. There are two Deputy Under Secretaries of the Army who assist the Under Secretary in his tasks; the current Under Secretary of the Army as of August 2, 2017 is Ryan D. McCarthy, replacing Karl F. Schneider who had served as Acting Under Secretary of the Army since January 20, 2017; the office was created in 1947 as part of the general reorganization of the United States Armed Forces occasioned by the National Security Act of 1947.
The office was styled "Under Secretary of War" and was created by Department of War General Order 67, dated July 25, 1947. Three weeks on August 16, 1947, Department of War Circular 225 redesignated the position as "Under Secretary of the Army"; the following men have held the post: Official website
United States Department of Defense
The Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with national security and the United States Armed Forces. The department is the largest employer in the world, with nearly 1.3 million active duty servicemen and women as of 2016. Adding to its employees are over 826,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists from the four services, over 732,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.8 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, just outside Washington, D. C. the DoD's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security". The Department of Defense is headed by the Secretary of Defense, a cabinet-level head who reports directly to the President of the United States. Beneath the Department of Defense are three subordinate military departments: the United States Department of the Army, the United States Department of the Navy, the United States Department of the Air Force.
In addition, four national intelligence services are subordinate to the Department of Defense: the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office. Other Defense Agencies include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Health Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Defense Security Service, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, all of which are under the command of the Secretary of Defense. Additionally, the Defense Contract Management Agency provides acquisition insight that matters, by delivering actionable acquisition intelligence from factory floor to the warfighter. Military operations are managed by ten functional Unified combatant commands; the Department of Defense operates several joint services schools, including the Eisenhower School and the National War College. The history of the defense of the United States started with the Continental Congress in 1775.
The creation of the United States Army was enacted on 14 June 1775. This coincides with the American holiday Flag Day; the Second Continental Congress would charter the United States Navy, on 13 October 1775, create the United States Marine Corps on 10 November 1775. The Preamble of the United States Constitution gave the authority to the federal government to defend its citizens: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Upon the seating of the first Congress on 4 March 1789, legislation to create a military defense force stagnated as they focused on other concerns relevant to setting up the new government. President George Washington went to Congress to remind them of their duty to establish a military twice during this time.
On the last day of the session, 29 September 1789, Congress created the War Department, historic forerunner of the Department of Defense. The War Department handled naval affairs until Congress created the Navy Department in 1798; the secretaries of each of these departments reported directly to the president as cabinet-level advisors until 1949, when all military departments became subordinate to the Secretary of Defense. After the end of World War II, President Harry Truman proposed creation of a unified department of national defense. In a special message to Congress on 19 December 1945, the President cited both wasteful military spending and inter-departmental conflicts. Deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive. On 26 July 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which set up a unified military command known as the "National Military Establishment", as well as creating the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, National Security Resources Board, United States Air Force and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The act placed the National Military Establishment under the control of a single Secretary of Defense. The National Military Establishment formally began operations on 18 September, the day after the Senate confirmed James V. Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense; the National Military Establishment was renamed the "Department of Defense" on 10 August 1949 and absorbed the three cabinet-level military departments, in an amendment to the original 1947 law. Under the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1958, channels of authority within the department were streamlined, while still maintaining the ordinary authority of the Military Departments to organize and equip their associated forces; the Act clarified the overall decision-making authority of the Secretary of Defense with respect to these subordinate Military Departments and more defined the operational chain of command over U. S. military forces as running from the president to the Secretary of Defense and to the unified combatant commanders.
Provided in this legislation was a centralized research authority, the Advanced Research Projects Agency known as DARPA. The act was written and promoted by the Eisenhower administration, was signed into law 6 August 1958; the Secretary of Defense, appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, is by federal law (1
Mark Esper
Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician and corporate executive serving as the 23rd and current United States Secretary of the Army since 2017. Prior to his current position, he served as vice president of government relations at Raytheon. Esper graduated from Laurel Highlands High School in 1982, he received his Bachelor of Science in engineering from the United States Military Academy in 1986. Esper was a Dean's List student at West Point and recipient of the Douglas MacArthur Award for Leadership, he received a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1995 and a Doctor of Philosophy from George Washington University in 2008. Esper served as an Infantry Officer with the 101st Airborne Division and deployed with the "Screaming Eagles" for the 1990-91 Gulf War, his battalion was part of the famous "left hook". For his actions, Esper was awarded a Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, various service medals, he led an Airborne Rifle Company in Europe and served as an Army Fellow at the Pentagon.
Esper was on active duty for over ten years before transitioning to the District of Columbia Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Esper was chief of staff at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, from 1996-1998. From 1998 to 2002, Esper served as a senior professional staffer for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, he was a senior policy advisor and legislative director for U. S. Senator Chuck Hagel, he was policy director for the House Armed Services Committee from 2001 to 2002. From 2002 to 2004, Esper served in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy, where he was responsible for a broad range of nonproliferation, arms control, international security issues, he was Director for National Security Affairs for the U. S. Senate under Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist from 2004 to 2006. Esper was executive vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association in 2006 and 2007.
From September 2007 to February 2008, Esper served as national policy director to Senator Fred Thompson in his 2008 presidential campaign. From 2008 to 2010, Esper served as executive vice president of the Global Intellectual Property Center and vice president for Europe and Eurasia at the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, he was hired as vice president of government relations at defense contractor Raytheon in July 2010. Esper was recognized as a top corporate lobbyist by The Hill in 2015 and 2016. President Trump announced his intention to nominate Esper as United States Secretary of the Army on July 19, 2017, he was Trump's third nominee for the position, following the withdrawals of Vincent Viola and Mark E. Green, he was confirmed to this post by an 89–6 vote of the U. S. Senate on November 15, 2017 and sworn in on November 20, 2017. Official biography
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