Joint Chiefs of Staff

·         What is it?

o   The Joint Chiefs of Staff is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the Department of Defense who advise the Secretary of Defense, Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council, and the President on military matters.

§  NSC – council for President to discuss about national security and foreign affairs with his senior national security advisors and cabinet members (part of executive branch)

§  HSC – created after 9/11

o   The Joint Chiefs of Staff consists of the JCS Chairman and Vice Chairman, and the Military Service Chiefs from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and the National Guard Bureau (as of 2012)

§  Current Chairman: General Dempsey

§  These people are all appointed by the President, with Senate confirmation

o   The JCS headquarters in the Pentagon.

o   Joint Staff, assists Chairman of JCS

§  Joint Staff has 8 directorates, or departments:

·         DOM – Directorate of Management

·         J1 – Personnel and Manpower

·         J2 – Intelligence

·         J3 – Operations

·         J4 – Logistics

·         J5 – Strategic Plans and Policy

·         J7 – Operational Plans and Joint Force Development

·         J8 – Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment

·         There was a J6 – Command, Control, Communications, and Computers, but was removed.

·         Why was it created?

o   The origins of the Joint concept goes back to the Civil War

§  As the United States military grew in size after the Civil War, joint military action between the Army and the Navy became difficult.

o   Joint cooperation was unsupportive at either the planning or operation level, and was full of disagreements during the Spanish-American War in the Caribbean campaigns.

o   In 1903, Theodore Roosevelt established the Joint Army and Navy Board, which consisted of representatives from the military heads and chief planners of both the Navy’s General Board and the Army’s General Staff.