Secretary of the Army

Hon. Daniel Driscoll

Responsibilities

Daniel Driscoll, the 26th Secretary of the Army, is tasked with staffing, equipping and training the largest branch of the military, ensuring that its roughly 480,000 active-duty personnel, Guard and Reserve soldiers, along with related civilians, are supporting core, functional operations and readiness standards. 

Stated Priorities

• Boost Army recruiting. During the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Driscoll responded to concerns about Army recruitment, saying: “my sense is that for the last three or four years, we have missed our goals. The best analogy that I heard is the Army threw the dart at the dartboard and then drew the bullseye around where the dart landed. That’s not a great way to staff an army. We have the fewest number of active-duty soldiers that we have had since World War II right now. Conflict is erupting around the world.” 
• Incentivize future enlistment by shortening the Army Junior ROTC waiting list. “These are the kind of lineages and relationships and chains that we can build into communities, that can get us not just one future soldier but get us generations of soldiers,” he said. The Army’s FY25 $185.9 billion budget request earmarked $675 million toward recruiting initiatives.

• End affirmative action policies at service academies such as West Point, claiming they fail to support the Army’s long history of meritocracy. His statement aligns with the “standards of excellence” expressed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
• Modernize the Army. Invest in technologies and weaponry that give the Army an edge in “new, complex and contested environments.” 
• When asked by Senator Jack Reed how he proposes to grow the defense industrial base, Driscoll replied: “I think the first thing we need to do is improve the Army as a customer. The current model the Army uses to acquire things rewards entities that are enormous. The big five primes are the case study in who can currently survive such a hard relationship with a customer…I think that a hard focus on improving the Army’s ability to project what it needs and empowering the defense base to expand from, call it, five to seven to 25 to 50, would be powerful first steps.”

Quote

“The multi-domain rollout across the Army is the future of warfare.”

Military

• Commissioned in 2007 as an Armor Officer through the Army Officer Candidate School (OCS). Established in 1941 to meet the need for commissioned officers during high periods of conflicts, OCS’ rigorous,12-week training program has turned out graduates ranging from joint chiefs of staff to political columnist William F. Buckley Jr.
• Cavalry scout platoon leader with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, NY. 
• Deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2009. Serving for three years. Driscoll left the service as First Lieutenant. 
• Military awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Ranger Tab, and Combat Action Badge. 

Administrative/Political Career

• In 2020, Driscoll made an unsuccessful bid for Western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. A Republican candidate, he campaigned on issues of national security, job security and lower taxes. In summarizing his platform, Driscall remarked in the Asheville Citizen Times newspaper in 2020: “to me, mountain values means a fierce independence to do what’s right, a strong desire to build a community and support your neighbors, an ability to be scrappy and make things work. They’re part of WNC — unique, tough, strong presences.”
• Former senior adviser to Vice President JD Vance, whom he met at law school. 

Business Career

• Driscoll has worked in the financial sectors of investment banking, private equity, venture capital, and business operations, some within the Charlotte area. 

Education

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – BS degree. (Graduated in three years, reportedly to join the military.)
• Yale Law School. Attended on the GI Bill. Graduated in 2014 with a three-year professional degree in law (JD). While at university, he worked in Yale’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic, interned for the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs and also for Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who helped further the careers of several law clerks, some of whom went on to become Supreme Court justices. 

Early Life

A native of Boone, NC, Driscoll was born in 1985 and raised in Banner Elk in the western part of the state. He attended Watauga High School. His father served during Vietnam as an infantryman. His grandfather was a decoder in the Army during World War II.

Personal

• Married to his high-school sweetheart, Cassie Driscoll, a plastic surgeon. Together, they have two children.

• A member of the Rotary Club, VFW Post 1134, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.