Lieutenant Gen. David Goldfein, Director of the Joint Staff, cuts the ribbon on the new portrait board that officials unveiled at the Pentagon, July 23, 2015. The board contains the images of past directors of the Joint Staff. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Sean Harp)
Vice Adm. Kurt Tidd, assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lt. Gen. William Mayville Jr., J-3 Director for Operations and Lt. Gen. David Goldfein, Director of the Joint Staff, look at the newly unveiled portrait board at the Pentagon, July 23, 2015. The board contains the images of past directors of the Joint Staff. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Sean Harp)
WASHINGTON —
The new portrait board that officials unveiled at the Pentagon today contains names and pictures of men almost everyone in the military knows: John Abizaid, Lloyd Austin, Bill Gortney, Stan McChrystal, Norton Schwartz, Tim Keating and many, many more stretching back to the beginning of the Defense Department in 1947.
They are the men who held the position of director of the Joint Staff.
Their subsequent career arcs show this is an enormously influential position in the military hierarchy. Abizaid and Austin went on to command U.S. Central Command. Gortney commands U.S. Northern Command. McChrystal commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Schwartz was Air Force chief of staff, and Keating commanded U.S. Pacific Command.
Air Force Lt. Gen. David L. Goldfein, the current director, will put on another star when he leaves the position shortly to be the Air Force vice chief of staff.
Mastering the 'Good Hand-off'
The Joint Staff provides the support for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the vice chairman and the rest of the Joint Chiefs need to provide their best military advice. The director coordinates the effort and ensures all taskings are accomplished.
In an interview, Goldfein said the job “is to keep air over the wings of this machine called the Joint Staff.” The general used some sports analogies to talk about the position.
“Just like all the other kids, I run to the soccer ball,” he said. “The difference is, as I approach it, I look around and I find the biggest kid, make eye contact and say, ‘You got this one?’ As soon as I get a good hand-off, I leave and move on to the next target.”
The job, he explained, is about managing the staff to ensure the standard three things: a single person in charge, what the plan is, and what the mechanism is for follow-up.
“The other thing I tell folks is, ‘If you ever watch the Super Bowl, you saw me,’” Goldfein said. “I was the little kid on the sideline who during the breaks runs out on the field with a big smile and a towel in one hand and a water bottle in the other. I towel down the athletes, give them a noogie and get them back in the game. That’s what the director does.”
In the Advice Business
And the Joint Staff is like a Super Bowl team. The members are personally selected from every service and component. “My job is to keep them herded and moving in the right direction, but not get in their way and not slow them down and not be too controlling,” Goldfein said.
What the Joint Staff does is important to the military, certainly, but to civilian leaders as well. The sheer volume of issues confronting the United States has increased the work for the staff, but it hasn’t changed the fundamental nature of the term “best military advice.”
“At the end of the day, the chairman goes to the president, the defense secretary, the National Security Council, the Congress, he gives his best advice on the use of the military instrument of power,” the general said. “He steers a very clear line from whether it should be used. It’s ‘If you, the civilian leadership who are responsible for the decision, chose to use the military, here is what that military can do. Here are the risks involved. Here are the costs involved.’
“We, as a staff, arm him for that dialogue so he can inform the debate as the principal military advisor,” he said.