Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs)

United States Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs)
Seal of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs).
Incumbent Derrick M. Anderson [1] Acting   since April 9, 2025
Style	Madam Secretary The Honorable (formal address in writing)
Reports to	Secretary of the Army Under Secretary of the Army
Seat	The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia, United States
Nominator	The president with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	10. U.S.C. § 7016
Formation	1968
First holder	William K. Brehm
Succession	18th in SecDef succession by seniority of appointment
Salary	Executive Schedule, Level IV [2]
Website	Official website

The assistant secretary of the army (manpower and reserve affairs), abbreviated as ASA(M&RA), is a civilian official in the United States Department of the Army.

U.S. law provides that there shall be five assistant secretaries of the army appointed from civilian life by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. ^[3] The assistant secretary of the army for manpower and reserve affairs has as his principal duty the overall supervision of manpower and reserve component affairs of the Department of the Army. ^[4] Pursuant to United States Army General Order No. 3, the assistant secretary of the army (manpower and reserve affairs) supervises army strategy, policy, programs, and compliance related to functions such as recruiting, readiness and mobilization, civilian and military manpower, medical and health affairs, family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation, the review of soldier records, force structure policy, manpower analysis, the army-wide equal employment opportunity program and critical matters pertaining to reserve affairs. ^[5]

The office can be traced to 1950, when United States Secretary of the Army Gordon Gray decided to centralize manpower issues for civil, military, and reserve personnel under one individual, with the position being elevated to Assistant Secretary when manpower issues proved to be a problem during the course of the Korean War. ^[6] The office was then abolished in 1961, with its duties transferred to the Office of the Under Secretary of the Army, but then re-established - this time by statute - in 1968. ^[6]

List of assistant secretaries

Picture	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President appointed by	Secretary served under
	William K. Brehm [7]	1968	1969	Lyndon B. Johnson	Stanley Rogers Resor
	Donald G. Brotzman	1975	1977	Gerald R. Ford	Martin R. Hoffman
	Robert Nelson (acting)	January 20, 1981	June 1981	Ronald Reagan	John Otho Marsh, Jr.
	Harry N. Walters [8]	June 1981	January 5, 1983	Ronald Reagan	John Otho Marsh, Jr.
	Delbert Spurlock [9]	1983	1989	Ronald Reagan	John Otho Marsh, Jr.
	G. Kim Wincup [10]	1989	May 1992	George H. W. Bush	Michael P. W. Stone
	Robert S. Silberman [11]	1992	January 20, 1993	George H. W. Bush	Michael P. W. Stone
	Sara E. Lister	June 10, 1994 [12]	November 15, 1997 [13]	Bill Clinton	Togo D. West, Jr.
	Patrick T. Henry [14]	June 10, 1998	January 20, 2001	Bill Clinton	Louis Caldera
	Reginald J. Brown [15]	August 3, 2001	January 20, 2005	George W. Bush	Thomas E. White, Francis J. Harvey
	Ronald J. James [16]	October 1, 2006	January 20, 2009 [17]	George W. Bush	Francis J. Harvey, Pete Geren
	Thomas R. Lamont [18]	June 22, 2009	September 30, 2013	Barack Obama	Pete Geren, John M. McHugh
	Debra S. Wada [19]	October 2, 2014	January 20, 2017	Barack Obama	John M. McHugh, Eric Fanning
	Casey Wardynski [20]	January 16, 2019	January 20, 2021	Donald Trump	Mark Esper Ryan D. McCarthy
	Yvette K. Bourcicot (acting)	January 10, 2022	December 22, 2022	Joe Biden	Christine Wormuth
	Agnes Gereben Schaefer	December 23, 2022	January 20, 2025	Joe Biden	Christine Wormuth
	Mark R. Lewis (acting)	January 20, 2025	February 25, 2025	Donald Trump	Mark Averill (acting)
	Julie A. Banks (acting)	February 25, 2025	April 9, 2025	Donald Trump	Daniel P. Driscoll
	Derrick M. Anderson (acting)	April 9, 2025	Incumbent	Donald Trump	Daniel P. Driscoll

References

1. https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2025/04/22/536d095b/mr-anderson-bio-april-2025-1.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
2. 5 U.S.C.   § 5315
3. 10 U.S.C. § 3016(a)
4. 10 U.S.C. § 3016(b)
5. Website of the OASA(MRA) Archived January 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
6. History of ASA(M&RA) from website Archived February 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
7. Robert K. Griffith, Jr., The U.S. Army's Transition to the All-Volunteer Force, 1968-1974 (Center of Military History, 1997), p. 44
8. Secure Symbology Profile
9. "Wounded Vets on Government Agenda?", NPR, Dec. 21, 2007
10. ""G. Kim Wincup '66 Appointed Chairman of Defense Department's Reserve Forces Policy Board", DePauw University website". Archived from the original on 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
11. Nomination of Robert S. Silberman To Be an Assistant Secretary of the Army", June 15, 1992
12. "The White House, "President Names Three to Uniformed Service Posts", Jan. 24, 1994". Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
13. Sam Fulwood III and Paul Richter, "Army's Top Woman Quits Position Under Heavy Fire", L.A. Times, Nov. 15, 1997
14. ""DefenseWeb Names Former Assistant Secretary of Army to Board of Directors; Honorable Patrick T. Henry Brings over 20 Years of Defense Department, Army Personnel & Health Services, and Private Sector Experience to the Post", Business Week, Apr. 25, 2005". Archived from the original on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
15. "Last Roll Call from Westpoint". Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2010-12-28.
16. Profile of James from Dept. of the Army Archived December 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
17. See April 2009 Memo from James
18. Profile of Lamont from Dept. of the Army Archived February 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
19. "Profile of Wada from Dept. of the Army". Archived from the original on 2014-11-23. Retrieved 2014-12-02.
20. "Trump nominations tracker: See which key positions have been filled so far". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-10-11.