Small Wars Journal

Dr. James Miller: Pentagon’s Loss Another’s Gain

Fri, 11/08/2013 - 3:07pm

Pentagon Policy Chief Latest Senior Official to Step Down by John T. Bennett, Defense News.

Pentagon Policy Chief James Miller is leaving the Pentagon in January, meaning the White House must now fill two high-level Defense Department jobs in a matter of months.

Miller informed Pentagon leaders of his decision to step aside Friday morning, a Pentagon spokesman said. It is unclear just when in January Miller will leave his post as the department’s No. 3 civilian official, the spokesman said. Miller’s coming departure leaves the office of the undersecretary for policy with very few senior leaders…

Read on.

I worked with, and for, Jim Miller when he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Requirements, Plans, and Counterproliferation Policy (1997-2000) and Senior Vice President (2003-2007) and Vice President (2000-2003) at Hicks and Associates. Dr. Miller was an early advocate in addressing and improving DoD’s urban operations capabilities well before we conducted MOUT in Iraq. His advocacy of Joint, Army, and the Marine Corps’ early efforts (oftentimes met with resistance) enabled experimentation, concept and doctrine development as well as training improvements long before urban operations were “cool”. He was also the father of a true Defense red team capability - again met with resistance because it exposed "dirty underwear" (my term on this). Our nation owes him a great debt for his contributions.