United States Department of Defense

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Department of Defense

Established:	July 26, 1947 (By the National Security Act of 1947)
Activated:	September 18, 1947
Renamed:	August 10, 1949
Secretary:	Robert M. Gates
Deputy Secretary:	Gordon R. England
US Military Budget:	$532.8 billion (2007 official)
Employees:	700,000 civilian 2,300,000 military (2004)

The United States Department of Defense (DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the military. The organization and functions of the DOD are set forth in Title 10 of the United States Code.

The DOD is the major tenant of The Pentagon, and has three major components — the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force. Among the many DOD agencies are the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (see Strategic Defense Initiative), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the National Security Agency (NSA). The department also operates several joint service schools, including the National War College.

Contents 1 History 2 Organization 3 Current issues 4 Components 5 See also 6 Related legislation 7 External links

[edit] History

During 1945, specific plans for the proposed DoD were put forth by the Army, the Navy, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a special message to Congress on December 19, 1945, President Harry Truman proposed creation of a unified Department of National Defense. A proposal went to Congress in April 1946, but was held up by the Naval Affairs Committee hearings in July 1946, which raised objections to the concentration of power in a single department. Truman eventually sent new legislation to Congress in February 1947, where it was debated and amended for several months.

DoD was created in 1947 by creating the a national military establishment with single secretary as its head to preside over the former War Department (founded in 1789) and Navy Department (founded in 1798; formerly the Board of Admiralty, founded in 1780). The Department of the Air Force was also created as a new service at the same time (it had been part of the War Department as the USAAF headed by a five star general), and made part of DoD. DoD was created in order to reduce interservice rivalry which was believed to have reduced military effectiveness during World War II.

On July 26, 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which set up the National Military Establishment to begin operations on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James V. Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense. The Establishment had the unfortunate abbreviation 'NME' (the obvious pronunciation being "enemy"), and was renamed the "Department of Defense" (abbreviated as DOD or DoD) on August 10, 1949; in addition, the Secretary of Defense was given greater authority over three of the branches of the military (Army, Navy, and Air Force). Prior to the creation of the National Military Establishment / Department of Defense, the Armed Forces of the United States were separated into different cabinet-level departments without much central authority. The Marine Corps remained as a separate service under the Department of the Navy.

[edit] Organization

The Department of Defense is based in The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia outside Washington, D.C., across the Potomac River. It includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, as well as non-combat agencies such as the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DoD's annual budget is roughly $425 billion^{[citation needed]}. This figure does not include tens of billions more in supplemental expenditures allotted by Congress throughout the year, particularly for the war in Iraq. It also does not include expenditures by the Department of Energy on nuclear weapons design and testing.

The command structure of the Department of Defense is defined by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Under the act, the chain of command runs from the President of the United States, through the Secretary of Defense, to the combatant commanders (COCOM) who command all military forces within their area of responsibility. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service Chiefs of Staff are responsible for readiness of the U.S. military and serve as the President's military advisers, but are not in the chain of command. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States.

In wartime, the Department of Defense also has authority over the Coast Guard; in peacetime, that agency is under the control of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Prior to the creation of DHS, the Coast Guard was under the control of the Department of Transportation and earlier under the Department of Commerce. The Coast Guard has not been formally militarized since World War II, although it has participated in various military and law enforcement operations over the years.

[edit] Current issues

On February 22, 2002, the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General has reported that DOD has not and will not account for $1.1 trillion of "undocumentable adjustments." In addition, there have been several high-profile Government Accountability Office investigations of the Department of Defense.

The GAO is also interested in ways DOD can partner with other government agencies to save money and create efficiencies. One way was through use of the Veteran's Administration's Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) program. The CMOP fills continuation of therapy or refill prescriptions only. Initial prescriptions are written for veterans at one of the Veteran Administration’s health care facilities. When a refill is needed, the heath care facilities process the prescriptions. The CMOP then uploads this information from multiple facilities in its region. Once filled, the US Postal Service delivers the prescriptions. The health care facility or clinic is notified of the prescription’s completion electronically. As of 2000, the annual workload was near 50 million prescriptions. Processing and filling prescriptions took two days; three more days were required for mail delivery.

The DOD and VA conducted a pilot program in FY 2003. In its 2005 report, GAO-05-555, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the DOD could generate savings because CMOP's size allows it to negotiate volume discounts. The CMOP program is now serving the entire country from a number of locations including West Los Angeles, California, Bedford, Massachusetts, Dallas, Texas, Hines, Illinois, Charleston, South Carolina, Leavenworth, Kansas and Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

[edit] Components

United States Secretary of Defense

• United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
  • Office of the Secretary of Defense
    • Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee
    • Office of Net Assessment
    • Pentagon Force Protection Agency
    • Office of General Counsel
      • Defense Legal Services Agency
    • Office of Inspector General
      • Defense Criminal Investigative Service
  • Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
    • Defense Intelligence Agency
    • Defense Security Service
    • Defense Information Systems Agency
    • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
    • National Reconnaissance Office
    • National Security Agency
  • Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
    • Defense Security Cooperation Agency
    • Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office
  • Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics
    • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
    • Missile Defense Agency
    • Defense Contract Management Agency
    • Defense Logistics Agency
    • Defense Threat Reduction Agency
    • Office of Economic Adjustment
    • Defense Acquisition University
  • Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
    • Defense Commissary Agency
    • Department of Defense Education Activity
    • Department of Defense Dependents Schools
    • DoD Human Resources Activity
    • Tricare Management Activity
    • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
    • Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute
    • Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development
  • Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller
    • Defense Contract Audit Agency
    • Defense Finance and Accounting Service
  • Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
    • Washington Headquarters Services

• Military Departments
  • United States Secretary of the Army
    • Department of the Army including the U.S. Army
  • United States Secretary of the Navy
    • Department of the Navy including the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps
  • United States Secretary of the Air Force
    • Department of the Air Force including the U.S. Air Force

• Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • Chief of Staff of the United States Army
  • Chief of Naval Operations
    • United States Naval Observatory
  • Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
  • Commandant of the United States Marine Corps
• Unified Combatant Commands
  • Africa Command (AFRICOM)
  • Central Command (CENTCOM)
  • European Command (EUCOM)
  • Joint Forces Command (JFCOM)
  • Northern Command (NORTHCOM)
  • Pacific Command (PACOM)
  • Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)
  • Special Operations Command (SOCOM)
  • Strategic Command (STRATCOM)
  • Transportation Command (TRANSCOM)

In 2003, the National Communications System was moved to the Department of Homeland Security, but only for executive purposes. The National Communications System still centralizes its activities within the Department of Defense, since the human resources required by NCS (example: Military Deptartments) still reside within the Department of Defense, or for retention of practical maintenance.

[edit] See also

• Military badges of the United States Department of Defense
• The Berry Amendment, a U.S.C law that requires most goods used by the armed forces to be produced domestically.
• US Senate Report on chemical weapons

[edit] Related legislation

• 1947 - National Security Act of 1947
• 1958 - Department of Defense Reorganization Act PL 85-899
• 1963 - Department of Defense Appropriations Act PL 88-149
• 1963 - Military Construction Authorization Act PL 88-174
• 1967 - Supplemental Defense Appropriations Act PL 90-8
• 1984 - Department of Defense Authorization Act PL 98-525
• 1986 - Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 or Department of Defense Reorganization Act PL 99-433
• 1996 - Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act PL 104-132

[edit] External links

• United States DOD website
• Read Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding the Department of Defense
• U.S. Department of Defense Profile: Making the Tail Smaller and the Tooth Stronger
• Entire Collection of DoD Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reading Room
• The Budget Graph A graphical representation of the 2007 United States federal discretionary budget, including all military related funding.
• Title 10 U.S.C.
• Department Of Defense Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register RSS Feed

Senior Officials in the United States Department of Defense
Secretary of Defense Deputy Secretary of Defense Under Secretaries: Intelligence • Policy • Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics • Personel and Readiness • Comptroller Military Secretaries: Secretary of the Army • Secretary of the Navy • Secretary of the Air Force

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v • d • e  Agencies under the United States Department of Defense

Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee • Office of Net Assessment • Defense Criminal Investigative Service • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency • Defense Commissary Agency • Defense Contract Audit Agency • Defense Contract Management Agency • Defense Finance and Accounting Service • Defense Information Systems Agency • Defense Intelligence Agency • Defense Legal Services Agency • Defense Logistics Agency • Defense Security Cooperation Agency • Defense Security Service • Defense Threat Reduction Agency • Missile Defense Agency • National Security Agency • National Reconnaissance Office • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency • Pentagon Force Protection Agency • American Forces Information Service • Counterintelligence Field Activity • Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office • Department of Defense Education Activity • Defense Human Resources Activity • Office of Economic Adjustment • Tricare Management Activity • Washington Headquarters Services