Pete Aldridge, Gordon England, Thomas White and James Roche, the
new faces that will define the Defense Department under the Bush
administration, are expected to bring a new style of management
to the Pentagon.
Serving respectively as undersecretary of defense for acquisition,
technology and logistics (ATL), secretary of the Navy, secretary
of the Army, and secretary of the Air Force, these four nominees
come directly from the private sector, but most have long histories
of government service. Two of the four come from President Bush’s
home state of Texas.
The new members of “Rumsfeld’s team,” who had
not been confirmed by the Senate at press time, will put the Defense
Department back in the hands of defense hawks, according to Armed
Services Chairman Sen. John Warner, R-Va.
“There has long been a need for increased accountability
within the executive structure of our government to combat emerging
threats,” Warner said recently at a luncheon meeting on Capitol
Hill. Warner is certain that the group assembled at the Defense
Department is “the best team we’ve had on national security
that I can recall since the Reagan days,” he said.
These new leaders come to the Pentagon with long and varied resumes,
but none is a stranger to Washington. Undersecretary of defense
for ATL nominee Edward “Pete” Aldridge returns to government
service from the Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit organization,
based in El Segundo, Calif. Gordon England, Bush’s pick for
Navy secretary, recently was executive vice president of General
Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas. Secretary of the Army designee Thomas
White, a retired Army brigadier general, was vice chairman of Enron
Energy Services, based in Houston. Incoming secretary of the Air
Force James Roche was a corporate vice president at Northrop Grumman
in Baltimore.
The extensive corporate expertise of the nominees has indicated
to many inside-the-Beltway observers that the “revolution
in business affairs” at the Pentagon may no longer be an obscure
theoretical idea, often scoffed at by government bureaucrats. Creating
“business models” and working within a budget are not
unfamiliar toil to these industry executives, according to a Washington
insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Rumsfeld
has made it clear that he wants the service secretaries and Aldridge
to act as a board of directors, and he will serve as chairman,”
he said.
Aldridge became chief executive of the Aerospace Corporation, a
federally-funded research and development center, in 1992. He was
previously president of McDonnell Douglas Electronics Systems Co.
From 1986 to 1988, he was secretary of the Air Force, and did stints
as undersecretary of the Air Force and director of the National
Reconnaissance Office. Aldridge is trained as an aeronautical engineer
and aerospace systems analyst. He was in astronaut training in 1986,
but his space shuttle flight was cancelled because of the Challenger
accident. Earlier in his career, Aldridge worked in the office of
the assistant secretary of defense for program analysis and the
Office of Management and Budget. He is a recipient of the Secretary
of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award.
According to retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Lawrence A. Skantze, Aldridge
does not need any on-the-job training. “Pete has a superb
background, understanding and depth of capability in the acquisition
process. He is a broad-gauge guy in understanding technology, and
he knows how to get it,” Skantze said.
Gordon England, designated secretary of the Navy, has had a long
career in industry. England worked on the Gemini space program with
Honeywell, and on the E-2C naval aircraft program with Litton Industries,
before coming to General Dynamics in 1966. He started as an avionics-design
engineer with the company’s aircraft division, in Fort Worth,
and worked his way up to president and executive vice president
in 1991, until the division was sold to Lockheed Martin in 1993.
Until 1995, England was president of Lockheed Fort Worth. After
a brief stint as a consultant, he returned to General Dynamics as
executive vice president in 1997.
Retired Navy Rear Adm. Fred Lewis, remembers hosting England on
an aircraft carrier in 1992 while the latter was president of General
Dynamics. “He was very familiar with Navy aviation and battle
group operations and very interested in the operations overall,”
Lewis said. “England has a wonderful reputation as an industrialist
and a businessman, and he was especially impressed by the enthusiasm,
the esprit and the dedication of the young sailors on the carrier
under my command,” he said.
Thomas White, incoming secretary of the Army, served on the Joint
Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in the late 1980s, under now-Secretary of
State Colin Powell. He was executive assistant to the chairman of
the JCS during the Persian Gulf War. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s,
White had various high-level staff assignments at the Pentagon,
with two in the office of the chief of staff of the Army. He also
commanded two armored cavalry units: the 1st squadron of the 11th
armored cavalry regiment for the U.S. Army European command from
1981 to 1983 and he commanded the 11th armored cavalry regiment
from 1986 to 1988.
White retired from the Army in 1990. He then joined Enron Power
Corporation, and served in various capacities. Most recently, he
was vice chairman for Enron Energy Services, leading a management
team that runs the largest retail energy business in the United
States.
Retired Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, a recent appointee to the policy
and planning staff of the secretary of state, served with White
at the Pentagon in 1989 and 1990. According to Wilkerson, White
was “one of the finest armored commanders the Army had at
the time.” Noting that White commanded the armored cavalry
for Powell’s team during the Gulf War, Wilkerson said White
is a “fantastic gentleman, very plain-spoken and a very optimistic
and confident guy. Of all the people at the joint chiefs, on staff
at the time, White was head-and-shoulders above the rest.”
Wilkerson recalled one particular instance: “We had a map
in his office, on top of his cabinet, and we were looking at the
huge left hook we were going to take during the Gulf War. Tom leaned
back in his chair, smiled, and said, ‘It will be all right.’
And it was,” Wilkerson said.
At Enron, White helped bring the energy industry into the 21st
century, Wilkerson said.
White also was Lewis’ classmate on a JINSA (Jewish Institute
for National Security Affairs) trip to Israel. According to Lewis,
White has an “in-depth knowledge of the political scene here
in Washington and has a good grasp of the many-tiered strategic
perspectives in the Middle East.”
James Roche, the new secretary of the Air Force, returns to the
federal government from Northrop Grumman Corp., where he worked
since 1984. Most recently, he served as Northrop Grumman’s
corporate vice president and president of the electronic sensors
and systems sector. Roche worked in the office of the secretary
of defense from 1975 to 1979, the Senate select committee on intelligence
from 1979 to 1981, and the policy office of the State Department
from 1981 to 1983. Roche also did a stint as Democratic staff director
of the Senate Armed Services Committee under the late Sen. Henry
“Scoop” Jackson, D-Wash. Roche, a 23-year veteran of
the U.S. Navy, retired in 1983 at the rank of captain.
Ken L. Adelman, an assistant to Rumsfeld from 1975 to 1977 and
current co-host of www.techcentralstation.com, worked with Roche
at the Defense and State Departments. According to Adelman, “This
is somebody who has military, business and government experience
and has excelled at all three. ... I think he will be one of the
most powerful and significant secretaries of the Air Force in history.”