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I don’t recall if the thought was posed here or somewhere else... someone mentioned the order of Presidential succession, in light of SECDEF Lloyd Austin’s absence from duty (AWOL?) this past week.

I’ve been thinking about that and realized I only could recall the first 3 or 4. So, I just now looked it up - had know idea there are 18! (No freaking wonder we’re $34trillion in debt. H/T to the poster who shared https://www.usdebtclock.org/).

SECDEF is 6th in line to the Presidency.

https://www.usa.gov/presidential-succession
The U.S. Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 outline the presidential order of succession. The line of succession of cabinet officers is in the order of their agencies’ creation.

Vice President
Speaker of the House
President Pro Tempore of the Senate
Secretary of State
Secretary of the Treasury
Secretary of Defense
Attorney General
Secretary of the Interior
Secretary of Agriculture
Secretary of Commerce
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary of Transportation
Secretary of Energy
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Secretary of Homeland Security

I’m trying to find the name of the Assistant Sec Defense, without any luck. This is all I can find after much searching. If anyone else can figure out who takes the seat of the Dec Defense if he’s out of order, let me know. It appears to be this female, and it also states as of today:

The deputy secretary has no public or media events on her schedule.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks departs on Tuesday, January 9, for U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado.

At 12:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 10, the Deputy Secretary will preside over the USSPACECOM change of command between Gen. James Dickinson and Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting.

https://www.defense.gov/About/Deputy-Secretary-of-Defense/

Kathleen H. Hicks is the 35th deputy secretary of defense, sworn in on Feb. 9, 2021. Most recently, she served as senior vice president and director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously, she served in varying leadership roles within DOD, including principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, leading the development of the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance.

Here’s the line up:

https://www.defense.gov/About/Office-of-the-Secretary-of-Defense/

The Austin sickout thing is shrivelling my brain. I think there is a lot more to this then there appears. Let me look her up, now. Looks very bad to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Hicks

Kathleen Anne Holland Hicks[2][3] (born September 25, 1970)[2][4] is an American government official who has served as the United States deputy secretary of defense since 2021. She is the first Senate-confirmed woman in this role and is the highest ranking woman currently serving in the United States Department of Defense. Hicks previously served as the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy during the Obama administration.[1] By 2020 Hicks was an American academic and national security advisor working as a senior vice president and director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.[5]

Education
Hicks completed a B.A. in history and politics at Mount Holyoke College in 1991, where she graduated with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors.[6] In 1993, she earned an M.P.A. in national security studies at University of Maryland, College Park.[7] Hicks completed a Ph.D. in political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010.[8] Her dissertation was titled Change Agents: Who Leads and Why in the Execution of U.S. National Security Policy. Charles Stewart III was Hicks’ doctoral advisor.[7]

Career
From 1993 to 2006, Hicks was a career civil servant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, rising from Presidential Management Intern to the Senior Executive Service. She was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) from 2006 to 2009, leading a variety of national security research projects.[6]

During the Obama administration in 2009, Hicks was appointed deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces.[9] In 2012, Hicks was the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy during the Obama administration.[10] In that role, she was a liaison for the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and oversaw the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance.[11] Hicks was a presidentially appointed commissioner for the National Commission on the Future of the Army. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of advisors for the Truman National Security Project and SoldierStrong.[6]