The recent threads about the US Coast Guard made me wonder. There are seen to be three main armed forces in America: Air Force, Army, and Navy. Then there’s the Marines. But the Commandant of the Coast Guard - a full Admiral IIRC - has more ships under his command than many other countries’ navies.
Do any of the non big-3 actually get to the very top? Would a Coast Guard or NOAA officer have to transfer to the Navy? For instance, I see that NOAA Corps is commanded by a mere Rear Admiral (Lower Half at that). I also note that Wiki says the Coast Guard now comes under Homeland Security, except in time of war, when it gets merged with the Navy.
I’m guessing that Qadgop the Mercotan is a member of the USPHS, so perhaps he might have something to add?
The Coast Guard Commandant (who is a four star Admiral) does not sit on the JCS. It is my understanding that Admiral Yost, CG COMDT from 1986-90, attempted to change that. He made significant changes to the CG that made the organization less ‘maritime service’ and more ‘military’. He armed the larger cutters with the CIWS and Harpoon missiles. We had ASW capabilities at the time, but I don’t know if he initiated that program. He is probably best remembered for eliminating beards. Coasties are still bitching about that. Despite his best efforts, he did not land that seat on the JCS.
As was mentioned, General Pace is currently at the helm. As long as the CG does not sit on the JCS, you will never see a CG Admiral as Chairman.
The JCS was formed after WWII, about the same time as the Air Force split from the Army and the services came under the Dept of Defense instead of the Dept. of War.
If my memory is correct it was about 30 years ago that the Commandant of the Marine Corps. was authorized 4 stars and became a voting member of the JCS. Pace is the first Marine to hold the office of Chairman.
The USCG was, for many years, a part of the treasury dept. One of their primary duties was to prevent smuggling and therefore, non-payment of tariffs (taxes). I think it was in the 70’s that the CG was transferred to the Dept. of Transportation and more recently the Dept. of Homeland (ugh!) Security.
This is from memory, and I do have senior moments, so feel free to correct anything I got wrong.
Quartz, please keep in mind that NOAA had about as much in common with the Navy as the elementary school crossing guard has with the FBI. As they say, both useful, but hardly interchangeable. I’ve never met a Naval Officer who was ever in NOAA. Also keep in mind, the Officers that get to JCS are war fighters, no oceanographic officer in the Navy is going to get near that far.
Except that the Joint Chiefs of Staff predates the DoD, for a good reason. After Pearl Harbor, nothing was more obvious than that we were going to have to fight Japan in the Pacific, where both we and they held islands. That meant Navy against Navy and Army against Army, and we’d better have some coordination so that an Army division transported by ship to assault some island was being protected by the Navy from being attacked by the IJN. Along with this, much of the fighting we needed to do was going to be hand-in-glove with the British Empire, whose forces were in general directed by the Chiefs of Staff Committee serving under Churchill wearing his Minister of Defence hat. With them we formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff, consisting of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, the First Sea Lord, the Chief of the (RAF) Air Staff, and General Ismay (whose job doesn’t translate well but was basically the chief military advisor on Churchill’s personal staff), on the British side, and the Army Chief of Staff, the Commander in Chief of the US Navy, Admiral Leahy (who was to Roosevelt what Ismay was to Churchill), and, to balance the RAF, General Arnold of the Army Air Corps -> Army Air Forces. Although Marshall and King had to iron out a few interservice rivalries first, it worked so well that forming the unified DoD and reinstating the JCS to head it was a foregone conclusion after the war.
The current JCS bears little resemblence to the WWII era body, which was responsible for high-level command and control of the military. Since the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, the JCS have been a purely advisory body with no direct command role.
They are still the highest ranking officers by statute, though.
…and that is the difference between the “uniformed services” and the “armed forces”. I worked for an Air Force colonel and a NOAA captain (both O-6) when I was still in the Air Force, and both of them carried the same authority with those of us in uniform. The civilians in our office who understood ranks knew they were both O-6, but lots of folks treated the captain as though he were a hall monitor. This may have simply been due to his leadership style, though.
I know that the USCG is now Department of Homeland Security, but they used to be Department of Transportation. I still feel like smacking whoever made up the DHS, because we already have a Department for that: they’re called the Department of Defense. But I’ve strayed into the political.
The PHS is under the Dept. of Health and Human Services, I think. In the film Outbreak, some of the officers are Army and some are PHS.
A bit of an aside, but the “Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) is responsible to the Secretary of the Navy for the command, utilization of resources, and operating efficiency of the operating forces of the Navy and of the Navy shore activities assigned by the Secretary.” In laymans terms, it’s his job to provide, train, and equip forces for the Combatant Commanders to use to fight. In war, the CNO has virtually no authority to actually command forces in battle. I’m certain that the other services have the same command structure.
No, the Department of War was changed to the Department of the Army. The DoD was created to assume authority over the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the newly created Department of the Air Force.
You are correct. DOD of reorganized while I wasn’t looking.
Under the SecDef are three groups all at the same level in the organization chart all reporting directly to SecDef. The military departments (Army, Navy, AF), the combat commands and the Joint Chiefs.
The various military department top military positions are; Army and Air Forces Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps. They are in charge of training and equipping the various military forces. The combat commands are entirely separate and report directly to SecDef.