Under Secretary of Defense For Personnel and Readiness

The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, or USD(P&R), is a high-ranking civilian position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) within the United States Department of Defense responsible for advising the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on recruitment, career development, pay and benefits, and oversight of the state of military readiness. The Under Secretary is appointed from civilian life by the President and confirmed by the Senate to serve at the pleasure of the President.

The current Under Secretary is Erin C. Conaton, the former Under Secretary of the Air Force, was nominated by President Barack Obama on January 23, 2012, and appointed on June 8, 2012.

Read more about Under Secretary Of Defense For Personnel And Readiness:  Overview, History, Reporting Officials, Office Holders, Principal Deputy

Famous quotes containing the words secretary, defense, personnel and/or readiness:

    The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It was obviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments.
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    ... most Southerners of my parents’ era were raised to feel that it wasn’t respectable to be rich. We felt that all patriotic Southerners had lost everything in defense of the South, and sufficient time hadn’t elapsed for respectable rebuilding of financial security in a war- impoverished region.
    Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 1, ch. 1 (1962)

    This woman is headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self- opinionated.
    —Report by Personnel Officer at I.C.I., rejecting Mrs. Thatcher for a job in 1948.

    Poetry is a search for ways of communication; it must be conducted with openness, flexibility, and a constant readiness to listen.
    Fleur Adcock (b. 1934)