A former armor officer and Ivy League lawyer in line to be the next secretary of the Army said that he spent the night before his Senate confirmation hearing studying up on an Army’s field manual: FM 3-0, Operations. The 350-page manual, which is written by senior Army leaders and updated every few years, is the central planning document that lays out the doctrine and goals that define the jobs of the service’s million-plus soldiers.
Despite some tense questions from Democrats and a few slip-ups on his relative lack of experience, Daniel Driscoll, a 38-year-old former first lieutenant, appeared headed for confirmation during his Thursday hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
But both Driscoll and the senators questioning him gave little attention to daily issues that soldiers routinely cite as the least appealing part of service. These issues range from enlisted pay, poor barracks conditions, undermanned career fields, spouse employment, childcare, mental health and other quality-of-life issues.
The sharpest questions Driscoll faced came from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a former Army helicopter pilot. She dinged Driscoll for not knowing the number of soldiers in a division or where U.S. troops were based in Africa during their one-on-one meeting that took place ahead of his confirmation hearing.
“I did study after you asked me that question,” Driscoll told Duckworth at the hearing. “And to your Africa comment: West Africa and Horn of Africa,” he added.
For most of the two-hour hearing, Driscoll stuck close to his own biography and to high-level strategic issues like revamping the defense industrial base, addressing recruitment issues, and balancing deployments to the Southern border with general readiness.
Senators from both parties spent little time asking about quality-of-life issues facing soldiers and what Driscoll would do to address rank-and-file concerns were he confirmed for the secretary position. The nominee, however, did flag high operational tempo, or optempo, as a hardship facing soldiers. Driscoll noted high rates of National Guard deployments and said that the service has to “make sure we are considering and taking into account the stress on their jobs back home and on their families.”
Driscoll also indicated that he wanted to appoint a high-level position dedicated to ending sexual assault and “setting a culture where that is not tolerated in any way.”
From a rural town to the Ivy League
Nearly two decades younger than the woman he would replace as Army secretary, Driscoll’s resume is thinner than most service chief nominees. He served three years in the Army, leaving as a junior officer for law school, and has spent less than 10 years in finance roles, working for companies unrelated to defense.
But in his hearing, Driscoll pointed to his own biography as a more productive narrative that the service should use to bring in more recruits rather than “throwing more money at the problem” and emphasizing benefits.
Driscoll called himself a “third generation soldier” whose father was an infantryman in the Vietnam War and whose grandfather served in World War II. Driscoll was an armor officer between August 2007 and March 2011 and a cavalry scout platoon leader with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York. He deployed to Iraq for nine months in October 2009, according to his service record provided by the Army. Driscoll earned his Ranger tab and Combat Action Badge.
“The reason we joined is we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to serve our country when it needed us,” Driscoll said about his family’s Army service. “I think we have oftentimes lost focus on that and started to focus on things like the benefits, which are all important, and they’re very valuable reasons to join, but I think for many of America’s youth, it is the purpose of getting to serve.”
Using the GI Bill, Driscoll went to Yale Law School where he met Vice President JD Vance and later served as his senior advisor. After his military service, Driscoll worked in private equity and in 2020 he ran in a Republican primary in his home state of North Carolina.
Recruiting woes, standards and ‘$400 drone’ threats
If confirmed, Driscoll would be taking the helm of the largest branch of the military — one that has faced recruiting issues over the last few years. The Army hit its 2024 goal of 55,000 new recruits by bringing in those who skewed older and with the help of the Future Soldier Prep Course, which offers additional academic and physical training for recruits before they ship out to basic training. Driscoll said he would look to expand the prep course and look at possible improvements and expansions to the service’s waiver programs.
Driscoll also said that maintaining “standards and excellence,” were important. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Republican lawmakers have claimed that the military has moved towards racial and gender preferences in recruiting and training.
“I think one of the most amazing parts of my time in service, the Army, in my experience, was an incredible meritocracy. I can’t remember a single time being in where anyone thought that the system was against them,” Driscoll said.
He said he hoped both his son and daughter would one day take on “challenging,” gender-neutral requirements for advanced Army training.
“I have told my daughter, it would be the proudest day of my life — and I don’t think she understands the nuance of what I’m saying — to pin a ranger tab on her if she can complete Ranger School with the incredibly difficult standards being the exact same as when I went through. I think that those standards and excellence that the secretary of defense has talked about are important.”
At several points during the hearing, Driscoll referenced his perspective as a junior soldier in the Army’s effort to modernize and bring new technology to soldiers faster.
“There are soft spots all over our tanks which are some of our most dependable fighting machines that very cheap drones rigged with very cheap explosives can exploit,” Driscoll said. “A lot of the way that we have thought about how to fight will have to change because of drones, both large and small, with swarms. We can no longer shoot $4 million missiles to take down a $400 drone — that simple math doesn’t add up.”
When Driscoll did come under tense questioning, Democrats pressed him for his opinions on the politicization of the military, like recalling Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley for a review of his grade before his honorable discharge.
“Without knowing the specific details, I do support the president’s right to execute lawful orders,” he said.
Several Democrats also asked Driscoll to comment on whether he would follow unlawful orders from the president. Driscoll said he rejected the premise of their questions and said: “I would only follow lawful orders and constitutional ones.”
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