Joint Board Harold Brown and
United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Charles W. Duncan Jr with
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General
George S. Brown and the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon in 1977 As the
U.S. military grew in size following the
American Civil War, joint military action between the
Army and
Navy became increasingly difficult. The Army and Navy were unsupportive of each other at either the planning or operational level and were constrained by disagreements during the
Spanish–American War in the
Caribbean campaigns. The Joint Army and Navy Board was established in 1903 by President
Theodore Roosevelt, comprising representatives from the military heads and chief planners of both the Navy's
General Board and the Army's
General Staff. The Joint Board, acting as an "advisory committee," was created to plan joint operations and resolve problems of common
rivalry between the two services. Now, the Joint Board's membership was to include the chiefs of staff, their deputies, and the chief of war plans division for the Army and the director of plans division for the Navy. Under the Joint Board was to be a staff called the Joint Planning Committee to serve the board. Along with new membership, the Joint Board could initiate recommendations on its own initiative. However, the Joint Board still did not possess the legal authority to enforce its decisions.
World War II , Chief of the Army Air Forces; Adm.
William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy; Adm.
Ernest J. King, Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations; and Gen.
George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army. U.S. president
Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister
Winston Churchill established the
Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) during the 1942
Arcadia Conference. The CCS would serve as the supreme military body for strategic direction of the joint U.S.–UK war effort. The UK portion of the CCS would be composed of the British
Chiefs of Staff Committee, but the United States had no equivalent body. The Joint Board's lack of authority made it of little use to the CCS, although its 1935 publication, Joint Action of the Army and Navy, did give some guidance for the joint operations during World War II. The Joint Board had little influence during the war and was ultimately disbanded in 1947. As a counterpart to the UK's Chiefs of Staff Committee in the CCS, and to provide better-coordinated effort and coordinated staff work for America's military effort,
Admiral William D. Leahy proposed a "unified high command" in what would come to be called the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Modeled on the British Chiefs of Staff Committee, the JCS's first formal meeting was held on 9 February 1942 to coordinate operations between the War and Navy Departments. The official history of the Army Air Forces noted that although there was "no official charter establishing this committee...by the end of February it had assumed responsibilities toward the American war effort comparable to the CCS on the combined level." On 20 July 1942, Admiral Leahy became the "Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief", with all individual service chiefs operating under his authority. The first members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were: ,
USA; Adm.
Arleigh A. Burke,
USN; Gen.
Nathan F. Twining,
USAF (chairman); Gen.
Thomas Dresser White,
USAF; and Gen.
Randolph M. Pate,
USMC Each of the members of the original Joint Chiefs was a four-star flag or general officer in his service branch. By the end of the war, each had been promoted: Leahy and King to
fleet admiral; Marshall and Arnold to
general of the Army. Arnold was later appointed to the grade of
general of the Air Force. One of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's committees was the Joint Strategic Survey Committee. This committee, "one of the most influential planning agencies in the wartime armed forces", was an extraordinary JCS committee that existed from 1942 until 1947. Members included Lieutenant General
Stanley D. Embick, U.S. Army, chairman, 1942–1946, Vice Admiral
Russell Willson, U.S. Navy, 1942–1945, Vice Admiral
Theodore Stark Wilkinson, U.S. Navy, 1946, and Major General
Muir S. Fairchild, U.S. Army Air Force, 1942–?.
National Security Act of 1947 With the end of World War II, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were officially established under the
National Security Act of 1947. Per the National Security Act, the JCS consisted of a chairman, the
chief of staff of the Army, the
chief of staff of the Air Force (which was established as a separate service by the same Act), and the
chief of naval operations. The
commandant of the Marine Corps was to be consulted on matters concerning the Corps, but was not a regular member; General
Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., Commandant in 1952–55, was the first to sit as an occasional member. The law was amended during the term of General
Louis H. Wilson, Jr. (1975–79), making the commandant a full-time JCS member in parity with the other three DoD services.
Goldwater–Nichols Act of 1986 The position of vice chairman was created by the
Goldwater–Nichols Act of 1986 to complement the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as to delegate some of the chairman's responsibilities, particularly resource allocation through the
Joint Requirements Oversight Council.
Historic appointments and firings General
Colin L. Powell (Chairman, 1989–1993) was the first African American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he became the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 1989. General
Charles Q. Brown Jr., the second African American to serve as chairman, was the first African American appointed to lead a service branch when he became the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in 2020. On 25 May 2023, President Joe Biden nominated General Brown to become the 21st Chairman of the JCS. General Brown was subsequently confirmed and took up the post of chairman on 1 October 2023. Controversially, he was later terminated by President Trump's Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth on 21 February 2025, soon after Hegseth's confirmation. General
Richard B. Myers (Chairman, 2001–2005) was the first
vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to serve as
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General
Peter Pace (Vice Chairman 2001–2005; Chairman, 2005–2007) was the first Marine to serve in either position. Admiral
Lisa Franchetti became the first woman to serve on the JCS when she took over as Chief of Naval Operations on 2 November 2023. Like African American JCS chairman, General
Charles Q. Brown Jr., Franchetti was also fired by
Hegseth on 21 February 2025. Both the firings of Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, Brown, and the Chief of Naval Operations, Franchetti, "mark[ed] the first time that two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been dismissed from their senior military roles" since the creation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1947.
National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 A provision in the
2012 National Defense Authorization Act added the Chief of the National Guard Bureau to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Guard historians called it the "most significant development" for the National Guard since the
Militia Act of 1903. ==Organization and leadership positions==