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Policy

Here’s Who Will Be Running the Pentagon When Biden Takes Office

Dozens named in the most comprehensive roster published to date of who will be running DOD when the president-elect is sworn in.

Katie Bo Williams

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Katie Bo Williams
By Katie Bo Williams
Senior National Security Correspondent

Editor’s Note: Following additional reporting, Defense One has learned that six of the individuals named as part of the planning documents, Halimah Najieb-Locke, Carrie Kagawa, Seth Schuster, Susanna Blume, Tarun Chhabra and Tanya Bradsher, were named to the incorrect postings on the Pentagon's list. Some of these individuals are under consideration for roles outside the DOD. Chhabra and Bradsher have already been publicly named for a role on Biden's NSC. Those names have been removed from the list below for clarity’s sake.

Updated: 3:16 p.m.

There’s a new team in the E-ring starting on Wednesday, newly detailed by close-hold Pentagon planning documents reviewed by Defense One.

While news organizations have reported a number of these officials as being considered or expected to be Biden’s pick for the job, this is the most comprehensive list of who will be running the Pentagon when the president-elect is sworn in on Wednesday.

Because President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn into office on Wednesday without any of his chosen Pentagon officials confirmed by the Senate, his transition team has designated a slate of interim officials to fill those posts to ensure continuity of governance at the helm of the nation’s military. A handful of these officials are holdovers from the Trump administration, but the vast majority are career officials.

Some of those key officials have already been named — current Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist will serve as the acting defense secretary — but many of the mid and lower-level roles have remained unknown.

The Biden administration will also, on Jan. 20, send dozens of political appointees into the building to begin work. Some will remain in appointed positions, while others may be under consideration for some of the higher level, Senate-confirmed roles. 

These lists are based on internal Defense Department documents laying out the new administration’s staffing plans for Jan. 20. The documents are labeled as “pre-decisional,” but were being circulated inside the Pentagon as current as of Tuesday morning — the day before inauguration. A transition official emphasized that the documents were "simply a planning spreadsheet." 

"Not everyone on it has been officially secured into the positions indicated," the official said. "It is very much a working document intended for accounting purposes." 

Read on, below, to see who is slated to fill these roles.

Political appointees

Here are the political appointees whom the incoming Biden administration has slated to fill some of top Defense Department jobs, starting Wed., Jan 20:

Office of the Secretary of Defense

  • Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, OASD(PA) John Kirby
  • Advance Officer Bryson Hughes
  • Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense (Research & Engineering) Morgan Dwyer
  • Protocol Officer Keenan Geter
  • Deputy General Counsel (Legislation) Ozge Guzelsu
  • Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction) Richard Johnson
  • Principal DASD (Health Affairs) Terry Adirim
  • DGC (Environment & Installations) Taylor Ferrell
  • DASD (Readiness) Kimberly Jackson
  • Senior Advisor, OUSD (Comptroller) Farouk Ophaso
  • DASD (Cyber Policy) Mieke Eoyang
  • Special Assistant to the USD (Intelligence) Brian Katz
  • Special Assistant to DASD for Stability and Humanitarian Affairs Carrie Gay
  • Senior Advisor, OUSD (Personnel & Readiness) Beth Foster
  • Special Assistant for White House Liaison Office Scott Arceneaux
  • Special Assistant to the ASD (Legislative Affairs) (Team Chief, Personnel and Readiness) Mitchel Hochberg
  • Confidential Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Ramona Campbell
  • DASD (South and South East Asia), OUSD (Policy) Lindsey Ford
  • Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Governance), OSD Laura Kupe
  • Special Assistant to ASD for Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict, OUSD (Policy) Sameer Punyani
  • Special Assistant to the ASD for Energy Environment & Installations Daniel Parnes
  • Director, DARPA Stefanie Tompkins
  • Special Assistant to the ASD (Manpower & Reserve Affairs) Brittany Albaugh
  • Deputy Press Secretary Jamal Brown
  • Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Senior Advisor, Climate) Joseph Bryan
  • DASD (China) Michael Chase
  • Special Assistant to the ASD (Chief, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) Ian Staples
  • Director of Digital Media Andy Oare
  • PDASD (International Security Affairs) Mara Karlin
  • DASD (Western Hemisphere Affairs) Daniel Erickson
  • DASD (Industrial Policy) Jesse Salazar
  • Special Assistant, Office of the ASD for Space, OUSD (Policy) David Zikusoka
  • Special Assistant to the ASD for International Security Affairs Kevin Fashola
  • Special Assistant to the ASD for Acquisition Ahmad Khan
  • Special Assistant to the ASD (Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities) Daniel White
  • PDASD (Legislative Affairs), OASD(LA) Louis Lauter
  • Chief of Staff (DepSecDef) Radha Iyengar Plumb
  • Deputy Chief of Staff (DepSecDef) Alice Friend
  • Senior Advisor, OSD Lisa Sawyer
  • Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (Senior Advisor, COVID) Max Rose
  • DASD (Middle East), OUSD (Policy) Dana Stroul
  • Special Assistant to the ASD (Legislative Affairs) Roderick Owens
  • DASD for Strategy and Force Development Eric Ridge
  • Speechwriter, Office of the Assistant [to the] Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Veronica Yoo
  • Speechwriter, Office of the Assistant [to the] Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Brandon Velez
  • Special Assistant to the ASD for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Veronica Valdez
  • Deputy Assistant Director for Nuclear and Missile Defense Programs Leonor Tomero
  • Principal Deputy General Counsel Beth George
  • Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense Kelly Magsamen
  • Protocol Officer, OSD Salem Mariam
  • Deputy Comptroller for Budget and Appropriations Affairs, OUSD (Comptroller) Jongsun Kim
  • Special Assistant to the USD for Research and Engineering Zachary Learner
  • PDASD for Special Operations / Low Intensity Conflict Christopher Maier
  • DASD for Military Community and Family Policy, OUSD (P&R) Patricia Barron
  • PDASD (Strategy Plans and Capabilities) Melissa Dalton
  • DASD for Senate Affairs Matthew Williams
  • Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense (China) Ely Ratner
  • DASD (House Affairs) Brent Woolfork
  • Chief of Staff for ATSD (PA) Carlie Waibel
  • Director, Travel Operations Roy Sherman
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Ezra Stoller
  • Advance Officer, OSD Elizabeth Stockton
  • Special Assistant to ASD for Homeland Defense and Global Security Mohamad Shatara
  • Counsel to the General Counsel Charistian Urrutia

Army

  • Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works), Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jay Shannon
  • Attorney Advisor, Office of the General Counsel, Department of the Army Adil Ahmed

Navy

  • Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary of the Navy Molly Papermaster
  • Residential Manager and Social Secretary of the Vice President Storm Horncastle
  • Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy, Department of the Navy Tommy Ross
  • Attorney Advisor, Office of the General Counsel, Department of the Navy Magdey Abdallah

Air Force

  • Attorney Advisor, Office of the General Counsel, Department of the Air Force Peri Tenenbaum

Interim officials

Here’s who the Biden administration has slated to fill some of the Defense Department jobs on an interim basis while it awaits either a Senate confirmed official or a permanent appointee. 

Army

Navy

Air Force

  • Secretary of Air Force John Roth
  • Air Force Under Secretary of the Air Force: none  
  • Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) John Fedrigo 
  • Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller) Stephen Herrera 
  • General Counsel Craig Smith 
  • Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology) Darlene Costello 
  • Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Installations, Energy and Environment) Jennifer Miller 

  • Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Space Acquisition and Integration) Shawn Barnes

Marcus Weisgerber and Bradley Peniston contributed to this reporting.

NEXT STORY: ‘A Piece of...’ Outgoing SecDef Blasts Expensive Programs

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