The service secretaries are not cabinet level political appointees, they have the Secretary title because of the historical connections to the old Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of War, both cabinet officers. But, when the Department of Defense was formed only the Secretary of Defense was a member of the cabinet.
The service secretaries are administrative functionaries with few substantive duties. These jobs are a place to reward party political hacks, although the politicians used to at least have the decency to appoint veterans. Of course there are damned few veterans among political hacks these days, so it may be find to find a veteran. I don’t think that they have much problem finding a homosexual in Washington.
“These jobs are a place to reward party political hacks...”
Yes. Vets generally don’t have $100,000 spare cash laying around to donate to politicians.
Marshall from Georgia, Hamburg from California, Boswell from Iowa; there are plenty of combat veterans who would have made a credible Secretary of the Army. Obama wanted a rectal representative and that’s what he got.