JD Vance’s law school classmate and advisor, Daniel P. Driscoll, has been tapped by President-elect Trump as the 27th Secretary of the Army. Driscoll, a North Carolina investment banker who unsuccessfully ran in the GOP primary in North Carolina’s 11th District in 2020, was an Army armor officer, cavalry scout platoon leader, and a graduate of the US Army’s Ranger School (back before you know what happened) who served in combat in Iraq.
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As Secretary of the Army, Driscoll will be a key part of President Trump’s effort to change the Pentagon’s focus from big-ticket items, DEI, and the unhealthy pattern of generals and admirals moving to major defense contractors shortly after retirement — if they wait that long . Driscoll will take charge of over a million active duty, reserve, and National Guard soldiers and 330,000 civilian employees. Driscoll will be confronted with an Army that, in my opinion, rivals the darkest days of the late 1970s in terms of training, morale, and esprit. The general officer corps appears to be beyond salvage. It also looks like the Army procurement nabobs are poised to go on another binge of replacing highly successful and still best-in-class equipment at great expense, which will be paid for by cutting Army end-strength. Driscoll’s time at the pointy end of the stick should have allowed him to understand the problems facing the Army, and his track record as an entrepreneur will hopefully keep him from being captured by the organization.
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I’m wishing Godspeed to Mr. Driscoll. He’s going to need it.