The Pentagon’s Civilians Are Unhappy. That’s Dangerous for Us All.
The Defense Department can’t afford to alienate its largest workforce.
Ashton Carter served as a civilian before becoming secretary of defense.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Pop quiz: Which of the Department of Defense’s many divisions is the largest? Is it the Army, despite the slashing of troop strength since the winding down of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Or the Navy, which Congress is gifting with new batches of aircraft carriers, submarines, frigates and more? How about the Air Force, in line to get more than 1,700 state-of-the-art F-35 fighters? Perhaps the Marine Corps, which transformed itself admirably into a ground force in the current wars?
The answer is: none of the above. The Pentagon’s biggest workforce wears not uniforms but white collars: its 776,000 civilian personnel, topped only by Walmart on the list of largest U.S.-based workforces.