Gen. James Cartwright

Vice-chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (since August 2007)

Why He Matters

Talk to any defense insider about Gen. Cartwright and you will walk away with little doubt the man called "Hoss" is a major player inside the Pentagon. That's largely because the vice chairman leads the powerful - and sometimes feared - Joint Requirements Oversight Council. If the U.S. military wants to spend billions in taxpayer funds on a new combat vehicle, aircraft or naval vessel, they must first garner the approval of the Cartwright-led panel. Few in Washington wield such power over federal funds.

The highly regarded Marine four-star general also co-chairs two other key Pentagon panels charged with overseeing U.S. weapons purchasing: the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) and the deputy defense secretary's Defense Acquisition Working Group (DAWG). Collectively, those posts give him substantial sway over which weapon systems the military buys - and which never mature beyond a PowerPoint presentation.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: 2nd lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps (1971); Commander of U.S. Strategic Command (2004 to 2007)
Birthday: Sept. 22, 1949
Hometown: Rockford, Ill.
Alma Mater: University of Iowa (Pre-medicine); Graduate, Air Command & Staff College; Naval War College (M.A., National Security Studies); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Completed fellowship)

Deployments: Operational assignments flying F-4, OA-4 and F/A-18 aircraft; Commander of First Marine Air Wing; Deputy Commanding General of Marine Forces Atlantic
DC Office: 9999 Joint Staff Pentagon
Web site

Path to Power

Cartwright boasts one of the most unique resumes in the U.S. military, having flown fighter jets, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served in a number of senior Pentagon posts. Commissioned as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps in November 1971, Cartwright wrapped up his naval aviator training in early 1977 and went on to complete several operational tours flying such warplanes as the F-4 and F/A-18 aircraft.

J-8 Command

Cartwright is no stranger to the inner workings of the Pentagon. As early as 1996, Cartwright was a major player within the building, serving as deputy director of the Joint Staff's Force Structure and Requirements Directorate, also known as J-8, from 1996 to 1999. The J-8 conducts studies and other analysis designed to help defense officials make decisions about force structure needs, operational concepts, acquisition programs and other issues.

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From there, Cartwright returned to the operational side of the military when he became commanding general of the First Marine Aircraft Wing, a post he held until 2002.

Cartwright returned to the Pentagon following that command assignment, becoming the J-8 director, a post he held for two years before being named commander of U.S. Strategic Command.

The general's leadership stints in the powerful J-8 shop led many in the defense community to call him uniquely qualified to carry out the duties of Joint Chiefs vice chairman. "It appears Gen. Cartwright will be more likely to throw a sharp elbow" than his predecessors, said Thomas Christie, a former director of the Pentagon's Operational Testing and Evaluation outfit.

U.S. Strategic Command

In 2002, Cartwright assumed control of the Nebraska-based command, which is charged with overseeing a broad range of missions, including: space operations; information operations; integrated missile defense; command and control; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; global strike; strategic deterrence; and combating weapons of mass destruction. It was there that Cartwright caught the eye of many in the defense sector, as he set in motion a sweeping reorganization of STRATCOM.

Cartwright's shook up STRATCOM by creating special "joint functional component commands" that he charged with coordinating all U.S. military efforts around the globe for the crucial missions of: space; global strike and integration; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; network warfare; integrated missile defense; and combating weapons of mass destruction.

The move cemented his reputation as an innovator and one of the best thinkers in the general officer ranks.

Controversy

A March 2010 report, released in heavily-redacted form to the press in February 2011, investigated and cleared Cartwright of having improper sexual relations with a subordinate. Though Navy Secretary Ray Mabus disagreed, the Pentagon inspector general said administrative action should be taken against the general for failing to discipline the subordinate and having too close a relationship with her.

In March 2009, in Tbilisi, Georgia, the report found that the general was working after midnight in his room when the female aide passed out there, drunk and distraught from a family health crisis. The door to the room was open, and the aide returned to her room after she awoke in 45 minutes without incident. Cartwright said escorting the passed-out woman to her room would have raised more eyebrows, but told anyone who got drunk on a future trip, even off duty, that they would be fired.

In a second incident in January 2009 at the Alfalfa Club dinner in Washington, D.C., the same aide, who appeared again drunk, got into a fight with Secret Service agents after Cartwright had entered the party. Cartwright again emphasized that the aide was barred from drinking on the job.

The Issues

As Joint Chiefs of Staff vice chairman, Cartwright advises the Pentagon on a range of issues on which he has worked extensively during the last decade: major acquisition programs, nuclear weapons, cyber threats and force structure.

Cartwright's efforts to alter the Pentagon's cumbersome and sometimes-ineffective weapons-purchasing system continued in 2008 when he quietly worked with a Defense Business Board (DBB) task force to craft a set of proposals on the subject for incoming President Obama.

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That study recommended shifting the business of formulating weapons requirements to the U.S. combatant commanders. Such a move would strip that function from the services - and likely encounter fierce resistance inside the Pentagon and in some circles on Capitol Hill. The business board report said the military's regional war fighters are "in the best position to define joint capability requirements to ensure we remain within the enemy's decision cycle."

Under the board's plan, the services' main jobs would be to organize, train and equip the units provided to combatant commanders for operations around the world. The plan would keep the vice chairman as the head of the JROC, while also giving the council more teeth within the Pentagon acquisition-and-budgeting process.

While he continues to push for changes in how Washington buys its combat tools, Cartwright has cautioned against becoming too dependent on technology.

"Weapons will remain a part of" national security, he told National Journal's Elaine Grossman in 2008."But it's got to be broader than that. We can't just buy our way out with technologically superior weapons. It just won't work. It won't be diverse enough to keep us where we want to be."

Nuclear Arsenal

The Obama administration is expected to make a string of decisions that will determine the future shape of America's nuclear arsenal.

During an October 2008 speech in Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates joined a growing chorus of defense experts in warning that the existing nuclear fleet is aging, and in questioning whether the U.S. industrial base could develop a new nuclear weapon. It has not done so in decades, Gates said.

Several of Obama's top defense advisers during the 2008 campaign are seen as opponents of atomic weapons. But those on the other side of this simmering debate say Washington must not rid itself of weapons that could deter enemies from any number of offensive acts against the U.S. or its allies.

Cartwright has said publicly that the U.S. military must maintain a nuclear arsenal to deter certain foes.

In April 2005, while he was head of STRATCOM, Cartwright said the U.S. could "drastically" pare down its atomic arsenal, which at that time included nearly 10,000 warheads. He argued that advanced guidance systems had made conventional arms so precise that they could be used to destroy the kinds of targets typically reserved for the nuclear- weapons target list.

Cartwright, however, saw one major hurdle: the military lacked conventional weapons that could be launched to quickly terminate fleeting targets. Only nuclear warheads mounted on intercontinental-ballistic missiles can meet that time-sensitive requirement.

The then-STRATCOM chief answered with a new idea, which he dubbed the "Prompt Global Strike" (PGS) concept. "A nuclear weapon is still a viable part of our inventory" but "one size does not fit all," he told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee during a March 2006 hearing. "What we'd like to do is field a [non-atomic] weapon that will give us broader and potentially [a] more appropriate choice for the nation."

The vice chairman's pet project has been included in Pentagon spending requests, and broadly endorsed by lawmakers. But those same lawmakers also have made a habit of stripping funding from PGS coffers to pay for other needs.

The Network

As deputy J-8 director, Cartwright worked for a year under the late Air Force Lt. Gen. David McCloud, who was director of the influential shop.

Cartwright has referred to former Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace as a mentor. Pace was Marine Forces Atlantic commander in 2000, when Cartwright was the No. 2 officer there. Pace, in a 2007 interview, said no matter where Cartwight goes, he is "the smartest guy in the room. He flat gets it. And he gets it in a way that not only ties things together, but [he] articulates it in a way that guys like me can understand."

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Additional Resources

Whitlock, Craig, The Washington Post, Gen. Cartwright, poised to lead Joint Chiefs, had his shot derailed by critics, May 28, 2011
John T. Bennett, "Gates: Future for U.S. Nuke Arsenal Looks 'Bleak,'" defensenews.com
Sami Lais, "Defense Executive of the Year: James Cartwright," Government Computer News, Oct. 8, 2007,
John T. Bennett, "Advisers: Overhaul DoD Arms Buying," Defense News, Oct. 27, 2008
Fred Kaplan, "Missile Defense: Mission Unaccomplished," Slate.com, Sept. 17, 2004
U.S. Strategic Command Fact Sheet , web site
John T. Bennett, "Bringing a 'Sharp Elbow' to U.S. Acquisition," Defense News, June 19, 2007
Elaine M. Grossman, "Hoss Sense," National Journal, May 24, 2008
Shanker, Thom, The New York Times, General Is Cleared of Sex Accusations, Feb. 23, 2011

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