By Pamela Berkowsky

Reorganization of the Defense Department and Joint Chiefs

of Staff

For more than a decade, Pamela Berkowsky served as an official at the Pentagon. In addition to work on the personal staffs of the Secretary of Defense and the Undersecretary of the Navy, Pamela Berkowsky also worked for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, led by a hairman and a vice chairman who must belong to different services, include the Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps. In 2012, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau became a member of the Joint Chiefs as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Introduction

General Craig McKinley, an experienced fighter and cargo aircraft pilot and recipient of the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit, became the first National Guard commander to achieve the rank of four stars.

The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act also made changes in the senior leadership structure of the National Guard Bureau and mandated that generals serving in the National Guard receive consideration for appointment to lead certain Army and Air Force commands. These changes were an outgrowth of the expanded homeland defense role of the National Guard in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

About the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act