The Army has been without an appointed senior civilian for more than six months, but the service has not felt a particular lack of leadership even though the Trump Administration has failed to install a secretary, according to Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
“I would argue that not having a … full-fledged secretary of the Army certainly has not been catastrophic,” Milley said during a July 27 speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “We’ll work through it.”
“It’s best to have a secretary,” Milley added. “There are a variety of authorities that come with having a secretary. But, having said that, the way the system is built no one man is indispensable, so to speak.”
The Trump administration is on its third pick for senior Army civilian since the election last November. The first two removed themselves from consideration before their names were sent to the Senate for confirmation.
Mark Esper, head of Raytheon‘s [RTN] government relations and a West Point graduate, was tapped on July 20 as the next secretary of the Army.
Vincent Viola, former Army infantry officer, founder of Virtu Financial and owner of the Florida Panthers professional hockey team, was announced as the administration’s initial nominee in December 2016. Viola withdrew because of conflicts of interest with his business dealings.
Mark Green, President Trump’s second nomination for Army secretary, withdrew his name from consideration because of negative comments he made about lesbians and gays serving in the military and about Muslims in general.
Professional civilians within the Army have stepped up to fill any voids that exist, Milley said. Robert M. Speer has been acting secretary of the Army since Eric Fanning left the post in January.
“Granted, he’s an acting secretary, but I’m an acting chief of staff for a period of time, too,” Milley said. “We’re all acting in a sense that all of our timelines are always constrained, limited, any time you’re in an appointed position in government service.”