Ol Jock 99 said:

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cavscout96 said:

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Other side of the coin -

What, if any, are the disqualifiers?

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-basically no executive experience
-he pretty much an unknown in the defense and intelligence world
-not a think tank guy (which could help with the lack of exec experience)

Putting a young guy like this in charge of the largest and most complex part of government in a very fraught time seems…bold. Not to mention his personal life.

Kristi Naom, dog killing and all, would have been a better call.

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74OA said:

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His sole military quals are that he was once a Guard major with a couple of overseas deployments.

He's never run a large organization of any kind, or had any senior national security, political or even corporate experience that would prepare him to run giant DOD, particularly at a time when China is an accelerating threat, Russia is invading its neighbor, and the ME is on fire.

There's a reason, after all, why majors aren't promoted directly to general, much less to SECDEF.

He's nominated over vastly more qualified other Republicans because Trump believes he'll do what he's told, no matter what that order is.

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Trinity Ag said:

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DoD largely runs itself.

What it generally lacks is clear direction, priorities, and a willingness to make hard decisions and say "no" in an environment where we have enjoyed relatively high levels of defense spending since the Reagan Administration.

DoD won't stop functioning because a SecDef is inexperienced

-- subordinate leaders will just pursue their own priorities through alternative oversight relationships.

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cavscout96 said:

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Tanker123 said:

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SECDEF entails someone with executive experience and preferably retired general officers.

This is what he said: "First of all, you've got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs," Hegseth said, referring to Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. "Any general, any admiral, whatever," who was involved in diversity, equity and inclusion programs or "woke s---" has "got to go," Hegseth said."

I find it interesting many allude to a woke culture in the military, but I have yet to see evidence of it.

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Since WWII there have been 32 Secretaries or Acting Secretaries.

THREE have been former Generals. the Secdef position is about civilian control of the Defense Department.

Other SecDefs have ranged from SGT - LT - LTCDR - COL Most of those were WWII veterans and a couple of Vietnam veterans with only a handful of field grade /career service members.

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Noblemen06 said:

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Tanker123 said:

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SECDEF entails someone with executive experience and preferably retired general officers.

This is what he said: "First of all, you've got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs," Hegseth said, referring to Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. "Any general, any admiral, whatever," who was involved in diversity, equity and inclusion programs or "woke s---" has "got to go," Hegseth said."

I find it interesting many allude to a woke culture in the military, but I have yet to see evidence of it.

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I don't agree there is a woke culture in the military yet but DEI is enshrined in the institution at this point, thanks to the Obama and Biden administrations. The day to day experience of military members in the field isn't living and breathing DEI but there are plenty of artifacts in policy and even strategy documents that indicate DEI is a priority. Hell, the Air Force has a fellowship for O-5s to get a master's in diversity!

A SecDef that wants to tear that down is necessary to ensure the DEI policy apparatus doesn't consume the culture before it is too late.

That said, I do not like targeting Gen Brown in the manner Hegseth did in his Shawn Ryan podcast. Gen Brown seems to have committed an unforgivable sin (in the eyes of the anti-woke military mob) of commenting on racial tensions in the wake of George Floyd. He wasn't even playing the woke game when he did it, but there's little reasoning when it comes to someone who wants to find a boogeyman.

To the contrary, his priority as Chairman is almost identical to Hegseth's when it comes to focusing the Joint Force on warfighting and building warfighting capacity (in weapons, platforms, etc.) to be able to beat China or anyone else in a conflict. On multiple public occasions, he's been overt in his position that he does not favor tipping the scales in favor of any particular demographic group because it always means taking away opportunity from others - which is pretty much the underlying intent of the anti-DEI movement.

It'll be a shame if they don't give Gen Brown a chance to work for the Trump administration before giving him the axe - he's as beholden to civilian priorities as anyone else in the uniform-wearing side of the DoD. The Chairman isn't going to lead a rebellion against the SecDef and POTUS - unless you're Gen Milley. We shouldn't desire that kind of disruption of our republic's design. The JCS under Brown is night and day different than under Gen Milley (who no one misses for a myriad of reasons including his completely inappropriate politicization of his office as CJCS and disruption of the civilian-military relationship).

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Trinity Ag said:

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For what it is worth, the Deputy Secretary of Defense generally does the majority of the "internal" management of the department.

The SecDef is often "up and out" focused -- working with the Principals Committee (POTUS, VP, SecState, DNI, National Security Advisor, etc), working with combatant commanders, and other Defense Ministers (NATO, peer-to-peer, etc).

Budget development, strategy, acquisition, and the nuts & bolts process for running the department is primarily delegated.

Of course, every SecDef runs it the way he wants -- within the constraints of his time & capacity.

With a guy like Hegseth you would expect him to pick a DSD with some significant experience in the Pentagon -- like Ryan McCarthy.

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cavscout96 said:

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But wait... We was only a CAPTAIN?!?!?

"Gasp!"

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Hincemm said:

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I know this may turn into a political diatribe/

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