Nominee for Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll speaks Jan. 30, 2025, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. ((Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes))
WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday advanced the nomination of Daniel Driscoll, an Army veteran and businessman, to be the next Army secretary, paving the way for a full Senate vote.
Driscoll received a largely warm reception from the panel during his confirmation hearing last month and said he would serve soldiers, rather than generals or “the bureaucracy” as the top civilian official overseeing the military’s largest service.
“My sacred duty to our Army is to ensure our soldiers have the world’s finest training, equipment and leadership to accomplish any mission,” he said.
Driscoll is a third-generation soldier, continuing a tradition of military service started by his grandfather, a decoder during World War II, and carried on by his father, who served in Vietnam. Driscoll said his family’s service record prepared him to lead more than a million soldiers and Army civilians.
He told senators that he plans to use the Army’s 250th anniversary this year to tell the “rich history” of the service in an effort to boost recruiting. Driscoll joined the Army in 2007 after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in three years.
As a soldier, he completed Army Ranger School, served as an armor officer and deployed to Iraq in 2010 with the 10th Mountain Division. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, the combat action badge and the Ranger tab.
After leaving the Army in 2011, Driscoll attended Yale Law School, where he met and befriended Vice President JD Vance. He later served as an adviser to Vance and worked at several North Carolina investment banking and consulting firms.
President Donald Trump has praised Driscoll as a “disrupter and change agent” and Driscoll at his confirmation hearing said the Army “stands ready to execute on any mission for the president of the United States and the secretary of defense.”
Driscoll said securing the U.S. border with Mexico will be one of those missions. He sought to reassure Democrats who worried the Army could be forced into domestic law enforcement roles, saying he would “always follow the law.”
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the committee, has praised Driscoll’s resume and said, “His record, his Army service, his legal background, and financial experience have prepared him to handle the myriad responsibilities of Army secretary.”
