Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll speaks Jan. 30, 2025, during his Senate confirmation hearing. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Daniel Driscoll, a third-generation soldier and businessman who served in the Iraq War, to lead the largest military branch as Army secretary.

Senators voted 66-28 to confirm Driscoll for the position, which puts him in charge of overseeing the Army’s $200 billion budget and a force of more than 1 million soldiers and civilians. Six senators did not vote.

Driscoll said last month during his confirmation hearing that he plans to serve as the soldiers’ secretary of the Army, “not of the generals or of the bureaucracy.”

“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, 38, said he wants to use the Army’s 250th anniversary this year to tout the benefits of service and encourage more young people to enlist. The Army struggled in recent years to meet its recruiting goals but is now rebounding.

“We have the fewest number of active soldiers that we’ve had since World War II, even as conflict is erupting around the world,” Driscoll said last month. “We need to fix that.”

He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in three years so he could join the Army in 2007. Military service is a family tradition: Driscoll’s father served in Vietnam, and his grandfather was a decoder during World War II.

“The reason we joined is we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to serve our country when it needed us,” Driscoll said.

In the Army, Driscoll completed Army Ranger School, earning a Ranger tab, and served as an armor officer. He deployed to Iraq from October 2009 to July 2010 with the 10th Mountain Division and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal and the combat action badge.

Upon leaving service in 2011 at the rank of first lieutenant, Driscoll used the post-9/11 GI Bill to attend Yale Law School. He became friends with Vice President JD Vance at Yale and later served as his senior adviser.

Driscoll also worked at venture capital and investment banking firms in North Carolina and in 2020 unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination to represent North Carolina’s 11th congressional district.

President Donald Trump has praised Driscoll as a “disrupter and change agent.” Driscoll said the Army under his leadership would stand “ready to execute on any mission for the president of the United States and the secretary of defense.”

Among those missions will be securing the U.S. border with Mexico, where 1,600 Marines and Army soldiers recently joined 2,500 National Guard troops already stationed there.

Democrats have raised concerns that military operations at the southern border will harm the Army’s readiness and take time away from war training, but Driscoll said the Army could handle multiple priorities.

He also vowed to “always follow the law” after some Democrats said they worried the Army will be forced into domestic law enforcement roles under the Trump administration.

Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Driscoll after meeting with him last month and said his background has prepared him to handle the responsibilities of Army secretary.

“As secretary of the Army, Mr. Driscoll would bring relevant combat experience, a decorated military career and a proven track record at the highest levels of law and business to keep the Army focused on its mission,” he said.