Huh? Since when are the uniformed Secretaries of the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Navy not in the chain of command? Always thought they were the top of the chain, just under the Chairman, Secretary of Defense, then the President. How could I have been so wrong for so long?
Following the Goldwater–Nichols Act in 1986, the Joint Chiefs of Staff do not have operational command authority, either individually or collectively, as the chain of command goes from the president to the secretary of defense, and from the secretary to the regional combatant commanders.[7]
Goldwater–Nichols also created the office of vice chairman, and the chairman is now designated as the principal military adviser to the Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and the president.[8]
I think you meant “uniformed service chiefs” not “uniformed service secretaries”. Anyway, the chiefs of staff of the Army, Air Force, Chief of Naval Operations, Chief of Space Operations and Commandant of the Marine Corps are responsible for training and maintaining the forces that get allocated to the combatant commands. Their basic role is administration and fighting for budget dollars. The article is to make us believe something happened with the CJCS that didn’t. More gaslighting.