United States Secretary of the Navy

Flag of the SECNAV

The United States Secretary of the Navy ( SECNAV , German Minister of the Navy or Marine State ) is the civilian head of the Department of the Navy .

history

Until 1947, when the United States Navy , Army, and the newly created Air Force were merged into the Department of Defense , the Secretary of the Navy was a cabinet minister . Since 1947 he has been subordinate to the Secretary of Defense . The SECNAV is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate .

James E. McPherson, previously United States Under Secretary of the Army , has been acting as United States Secretary of the Navy since April 7, 2020 . Like his predecessor, Thomas B. Modly, McPherson was not confirmed in office by the United States Senate . It is expected that the Rear Admiral a., Nominated by US President Donald Trump in early March 2020 . D., Kenneth Braithwaite, the next SECNAV to be ratified by the Senate.

Organization and mandate

James E. McPherson, Acting SECNAV

The SECNAV is responsible for conducting all naval affairs under Title 10 of the United States Code . This includes all administrative and technical issues, recruiting , human resources , budgeting , equipment issues ( procurement and replenishment ) and maintenance , training, and mobilization and demobilization issues . He is also responsible for the provision, maintenance and equipping of all floating units in the fleet as well as their docks, ports and shipyards. The Secretary of the Navy is also responsible for the implementation of the Ministry of Defense policy and its marine-specific implementation in day-to-day business. The same applies to the second armed force within the jurisdiction of the SECNAV , the Marine Corps . The Secretary of the Navy traditionally assigns the names of new ships to the US Navy.

The Navy Secretariat (Office of the SECNAV )

The governing body of the SECNAV and its subordinate management bodies is referred to simply as the Navy Secretariat within the armed forces . These include the Under Secretary of the Navy (department head), the Assistant Secretaries (Head of Unit), the General Counsel (Chief Legal Adviser and General Counsel ) and other statutory and furnished offices.

List of SECNAVs

Secretaries of the Navy (Cabinet)

Surname	Term of office	under president
Joseph Hewes	1776-1778	Continental Congress
Benjamin Stoddert	June 18, 1798 - March 3, 1801	John Adams
Robert Smith	July 27, 1801 - March 4, 1809	Thomas Jefferson
Paul Hamilton	May 15, 1809 - December 31, 1812	James Madison
William Jones	January 19, 1813 - December 1, 1814	James Madison
Benjamin Williams Crowninshield	January 16, 1815 - September 30, 1818	James Madison, James Monroe
Smith Thompson	January 1, 1819 - August 31, 1823	James Monroe
Samuel Lewis Southard	September 16, 1823 - March 4, 1829	James Monroe, John Quincy Adams
John Branch	March 9, 1829 - May 12, 1831	Andrew Jackson
Levi Woodbury	May 23, 1831 - June 30, 1834	Andrew Jackson
Mahlon Dickerson	July 1, 1834 - June 30, 1838	Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren
James Kirke Paulding	July 1, 1838 - March 4, 1841	Martin Van Buren
George Edmund Badger	March 6, 1841 - September 11, 1841	William Henry Harrison , John Tyler
Abel Parker Upshur	October 11, 1841 - July 23, 1843	John Tyler
David Henshaw	July 24, 1843 - February 18, 1844	John Tyler
Thomas Walker Gilmer	February 19, 1844 - February 28, 1844	John Tyler
John Young Mason	March 26, 1844 - March 4, 1845	John Tyler
George Bancroft	March 11, 1845 - September 9, 1846	James K. Polk
John Young Mason	September 10, 1846 - March 4, 1849	James K. Polk
William Ballard Preston	March 8, 1849 - July 22, 1850	Zachary Taylor
William Alexander Graham	August 2, 1850 - July 25, 1852	Millard Fillmore
John Pendleton Kennedy	July 26, 1852 - March 4, 1853	Millard Fillmore
James Cochran Dobbin	March 8, 1853 - March 4, 1857	Franklin Pierce
Isaac Toucey	March 7, 1857 - March 4, 1861	James Buchanan
Gideon Welles	March 7, 1861 - March 4, 1869	Abraham Lincoln , Andrew Johnson
Adolph Edward Borie	March 9, 1869 - June 25, 1869	Ulysses S. Grant
George Maxwell Robeson	June 26, 1869 - March 4, 1877	Ulysses S. Grant
Richard Wigginton Thompson	March 13, 1877 - December 20, 1880	Rutherford B. Hayes
Nathan Goff	January 7, 1881 - March 4, 1881	Rutherford B. Hayes
William Henry Hunt	March 7, 1881 - April 16, 1882	James A. Garfield , Chester A. Arthur
William Eaton Chandler	April 16, 1882 - March 4, 1885	Chester A. Arthur
William Collins Whitney	March 7, 1885 - March 4, 1889	Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Franklin Tracy	March 6, 1889 - March 4, 1893	Benjamin Harrison
Hilary Abner Herbert	March 7, 1893 - March 4, 1897	Grover Cleveland
John Davis Long	March 6, 1897 - April 30, 1902	William McKinley , Theodore Roosevelt
William Henry Moody	May 1, 1902 - June 30, 1904	Theodore Roosevelt
Paul Morton	July 1, 1904 - June 30, 1905	Theodore Roosevelt
Charles Joseph Bonaparte	July 1, 1905 - December 16, 1906	Theodore Roosevelt
Victor Howard Metcalf	December 17, 1906 - November 30, 1908	Theodore Roosevelt
Truman Handy Newberry	December 1, 1908 - March 4, 1909	Theodore Roosevelt
George von Lengerke Meyer	March 6, 1909 - March 4, 1913	William Howard Taft
Josephus Daniels	March 5, 1913 - March 4, 1921	Woodrow Wilson
Edwin Denby	March 6, 1921 - March 10, 1924	Warren G. Harding , Calvin Coolidge
Curtis Dwight Wilbur	March 19, 1924 - March 4, 1929	Calvin Coolidge
Charles Francis Adams	March 5, 1929 - March 4, 1933	Herbert Hoover
Claude Augustus Swanson	March 4, 1933 - July 7, 1939	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Charles Edison	January 2, 1940 - June 24, 1940	Franklin D. Roosevelt
William Franklin Knox	July 11, 1940 - April 28, 1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt
James Vincent Forrestal	May 19, 1944 - September 17, 1947	Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman

Secretaries of the Navy (Department of Defense)

	Surname	Term of office
	John Lawrence Sullivan	September 18, 1947 - May 24, 1949
	Francis Patrick Matthews	May 25, 1949 - July 31, 1951
	Dan Able Kimball	July 31, 1951 - January 20, 1953
	Robert Bernard Anderson	February 4, 1953 - March 3, 1954
	Charles S. Thomas	May 3, 1954 - April 1, 1957
	Thomas Sovereign Gates	April 1, 1957 - June 8, 1959
	William Birrell Franke	June 8, 1959 - January 19, 1961
	John Bowden Connally	January 25, 1961 - December 20, 1961
	Fred Korth	Jan. 4, 1962 - November 1, 1963
	Paul Burgess Fay (interim management)	November 2, 1963 - November 28, 1963
	Paul Henry Nitze	November 29, 1963 - June 30, 1967
	Charles F. Baird (interim management)	July 1, 1967 - August 31, 1967
	Paul Robert Ignatius	September 1, 1967 - January 24, 1969
	John Lester Hubbard Chafee	Jan. 31, 1969 - May 4, 1972
	John William Warner	May 4, 1972 - April 8, 1974
	John William Middendorf	April 8, 1974 - January 20, 1977
	William Graham Claytor	February 14, 1977 - August 24, 1979
	Edward Hidalgo	October 24, 1979 - January 20, 1981
	John F. Lehman	February 5, 1981 - April 10, 1987
	James Henry Webb	May 1, 1987 - February 23, 1988
	William L. Ball	March 28, 1988 - May 15, 1989
	Henry Lawrence Garrett	May 15, 1989 - June 26, 1992
	Daniel Howard (interim management)	June 26, 1992 - July 7, 1992
	Sean O'Keefe	October 2, 1992 - January 20, 1993
	Frank Benton Kelso (interim management)	January 20, 1993 - July 21, 1993
	John Howard Dalton	July 22, 1993 - November 16, 1998
	Richard Jeffrey Danzig	November 16, 1998 - January 20, 2001
	Robert B. Pirie (interim management)	January 20, 2001 - May 24, 2001
	Gordon Richard England	May 24, 2001 - January 30, 2003
	Susan Morrisey Livingstone (Interim Management )	January 30, 2003 - February 7, 2003
	Hansford T. Johnson (Interim Management)	February 7, 2003 - September 30, 2003
	Gordon Richard England	October 1, 2003 - January 3, 2006
	Donald C. Winter	January 3, 2006 - March 13, 2009
	BJ Penn (interim management)	March 13, 2009 - May 19, 2009
	Raymond Edwin Mabus	May 19, 2009 - August 3, 2017
	Richard V. Spencer	August 3, 2017 - November 24, 2019
	Thomas B. Modly (interim management)	November 24, 2019 - April 7, 2020
	James E. McPherson (Interim Management)	since April 7, 2020