The key criteria for those in the top-tier positions appear to be loyalty, wealth, and ideological fervor, not competence.

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Shawn G. Skelly stressed equitable military hiring practices as crucial to national security at a Jan. 13 event. Rebecca D. Patterson, the ...

(Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool) He previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Defense Continuity and Mission Assurance and as the deputy assistant secretary ...

Robert Salesses, deputy director of the Pentagon’s Washington Headquarters Service, will fill in as acting secretary of defense ... include Guard troops there under state National Guard deployments.

That total does not include Guard troops there under ... Salesses, deputy director of the Pentagon’s Washington Headquarters Service, will fill in as acting secretary of defense, and three ...