Vice Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Leadership of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council

Military leaders at many levels have used the advice and processes associated with strategic planning councils in various ways to position their organizations to respond to the demands of current situations while simultaneously transforming to meet future challenges. This article broadly identifies how the last seven Vice Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff led the Joint Requirements Oversight Council JROC, the Nations most senior joint military advice council, to provide recommendations to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CJCS to help enable him to meet his resource-focused responsibilities. This resource advice, under the heading of Requirements, Programs, and Budget, is one of the Chairmans six main functions specified in Title 10 U.S. Code. This resource responsibility has not changed since his overall responsibilities increased as a result of the landmark Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense DOD Reorganization Act of 1986. Prior to this act, these resourcing responsibilities were almost exclusively within the Services domain, but the Chairman now needed to become more of an advocate in designing, sizing, and structuring the Armed Forces to meet combatant commanders needs. The Vice Chairmen changed this councils focus and complexity during the last two decades to help enable the Chairman to meet these new responsibilities, which provide leadership and decisionmaking insights.