To understand the criticality of that advisory role, it
helps to know a little bit about the responsibilities of the
CJCS. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the
principal military adviser to the president, the secretary
of defense, and the National Security Council. As the
senior ranking member of the armed forces, the CJCS
consults with other Joint Chiefs of Staff members and
the combatant commanders. The organization he leads
is the sounding board and objective adviser to command
authority at the highest levels and around the world.
Lt. Gen. Ruark brings broad experience in the military
to his role. Prior to his current position, he served as
the director of logistics, U.S. Central Command, and
consecutively as the director of logistics and the direc-
tor of facilities for the Marine Corps. He has served on
six Marine deployments—in Operations Desert Storm,
Provide Promise (Adriatic Sea), Guardian Assistance
(Rwanda), and Stabilize (East Timor)—and was com-
manding general for the 1st Marine Logistics Group in
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
DC VELOCITY Editor at Large Steve Geary sat down
with Lt. Gen. Ruark at his office in the Pentagon in early
September.
Q How would you describe what you do at the Joint Staff?
A That’s a good question. Sometimes, people in logis- tics outside of the military, out in the commercial
world, don’t really understand our role on the Joint
Staff. The chairman doesn’t have command authority
and he doesn’t have funding, but he does have the convening authority to bring people to the table.
In my directorate, we can convene just about any
group around any logistics issue. We’ve got more
forums than you could probably list in one sitting, all
of them established as a way to get a problem out in the
open so we can work it. But what comes with that is the
responsibility to get people to work together … to come
to a decision.
Q So, if you don’t actually have command authority over the combat force, how do you actually move
the ball?
A You collaborate. I had a first sergeant tell me once that the two best
ranks in the Marine Corps are company commander and
company first sergeant. “After that, it’s all downhill.”
I don’t know if I agree with that, but command
certainly is what every officer aspires to … and to get
there, you have to pass through a bunch of staff learning
experiences. Those staff billets teach you more about
collaboration than anything else.
I had the benefit of working in the Office of the
Secretary of Defense and being deployed to a couple
of crisis spots in the world with Disaster Assistance
Response Teams, where you had to collaborate outside
of the military. To collaborate with NGOs [nongov-ernmental organizations] and international organizations and private volunteer organizations and the U.S.
Embassy and other nations and other services really
teaches you a lot.
STAFF SGT. DANIEL LEVINDOFSKE, 8TH EXPEDITIONARY AIR MOBILITY
SQUADRON RAMP TEAM CHIEF, AND SENIOR AIRMAN DANIEL GOMEZ
PUSH A WATER BUNDLE ONTO A C- 17 GLOBEMASTER III IN SUPPORT
OF A HUMANITARIAN AIRDROP MISSION OVER AMIRLI, IRAQ, AUG.
30, 2014. THE TWO C-17s DROPPED 79 CONTAINER DELIVERY SYSTEM
BUNDLES OF FRESH DRINKING WATER TOTALING 7,513 GALLONS. (U.S.
AIR FORCE PHOTO BY STAFF SGT. VERNON YOUNG JR.)
