The Pentagon's Invisible Man by Gordon Lubold, Foreign Policy.
… When he was a senator, he was considered a free spirit -- a political omnivore and independent speaker of truth to power on issues from military force to negotiations with Iran. So when he got the nod to be defense secretary, many assumed he would bring a new kind of vigor to the Pentagon just when the place needed it most.
But after surviving his infamously bruising confirmation battle, Hagel has made few daring moves. He hasn't yet driven a pointed agenda, fired any poor-performing generals, or sent clear signals about how he'll put his personal stamp on a job he seemed to want but many believe he has yet to own. There has been scant word of him scoring any of the kind of bureaucratic victories at the Defense Department or within the broader Obama administration that some Pentagon watchers would have thought they'd see by now. And on the most prominent issue confronting the Defense Department -- the budget -- his moves have been cautious. Just this month he announced details of cuts to headquarters personnel, but its centerpiece was only a decrease of 200 people -- over five years - an underwhelming cut given popular perceptions of a bloated Pentagon bureaucracy…
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"The Pentagon's Invisible Man". This isn't the first time Chuck Hagel was invisible. In a 2002 Vietnam Military History Project interview, Chuck Hagel responded to interviewer Mike Perry that he had expressed some frustration about invisible leadership....and, that he never had much confidence in a lot of the officer corps. Further in the interview Chuck Hagel describes a helicopter that was shot down killing the battalion commander, who was General Westmoreland's brother-in-law. He was confused as to the location and date of the combat event. However, He states: "Well, I remember that day very well because Tom and I were both out there, and when the VC---it was a big fight." The event took place in July. A 9th Division Paper states that Chuck Hagel attended the NCO academy in May and was assigned as a clerk in Headquarters Company and later as a club manager. I believe, when the battalion commander was shot down, Chuck Hagel may have been again invisible. With the 2002 interview, a book, and a December 2012 Vietnam Magazine interview, he has difficulty telling the same story twice.