Prior to becoming the VA Secretary, Wilkie served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness from November 30, 2017 to July 30, 2018.^[5] An intelligence officer in the United States Naval Reserve, he was previously nominated for a Department of Defense position by U.S. President George W. Bush on June 20, 2006, and his appointment was approved by the Senate on September 30, 2006.

Early life and education

Wilkie was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, and attended Salisbury Cathedral School in England, and Reid Ross High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The son of an Army Artillery officer, he grew up in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His father, Robert Leon Wilkie Sr. (1938–2017), retired from the United States Army as a lieutenant colonel.^[6] He is married to Julia Wilkie, whom he has known since childhood.^[7]

Wilkie received his B.A. degree from the Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He receive a J.D. degree from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans in 1988 and an LL.M. degree in International and Comparative Law from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.

Career

Wilkie began his professional career on Capitol Hill as Counsel to Jesse Helms, and later served as legislative director for Representative David Funderburk of North Carolina. He was assigned to the Committee on International Relations and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 1997, he began service as counsel and advisor on international security affairs to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, remaining in that office until 2003.

From 2003 to 2005, in the Bush administration, Wilkie was special assistant to the President for national security affairs and a senior director of the National Security Council, where he was a senior policy advisor to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as well as her successor, Stephen Hadley. Wilkie developed strategic planning for the implementation of the Moscow Treaty, the Millennium Challenge Account, Iraqi Reconstruction and NATO Expansion.^[8] In 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates awarded him the Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian award of the Department.^[9]

In 2007, While serving as assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, Wilkie authored a memo outlining guidelines that restricted congressional testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by the president. Critics of the guidelines argued that they could impede investigations of the Iraq War, and that the Pentagon had no authority to set the rules.^[10]

From 2010 to 2015, Wilkie was Vice President for Strategic Programs for CH2M Hill,^[11] one of the largest program management and engineering firms in the world. He worked on advising assignments and program management. This involved working with the summer Olympics in London in 2012, as he helped reform the United Kingdom's Defense Supply and Logistics System.

From 2015 to 2017, Wilkie was a senior advisor to U.S. Senator Thom Tillis.

Wilkie was nominated to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness by President Donald Trump on July 25, 2017. This nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 16, 2017.^[12][13]

On March 28, 2018, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that Wilkie would serve as interim United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs until the Senate confirmed a successor.^[14] On May 18, 2018, following the withdrawn nomination of Ronny Jackson, Trump announced that he was nominating Wilkie to hold the Veterans Affairs post full-time. On July 23, 2018, Wilkie was confirmed by the United States Senate as the next Secretary of Veterans Affairs, by an 86-9 vote.^[2] He was sworn in on July 30, 2018.^[4]

Military experience

Wilkie served in the United States Navy Reserve; he is currently in the United States Air Force Reserve, where he holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. His assignments have included Joint Forces Intelligence Command, Naval Special Warfare Group Two, and the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Wilkie is a graduate of the College of Naval Command and Staff, Air Command and Staff College, the United States Army War College, and the Joint Forces Staff College. He has had articles published in several military journals, including The Naval War College Review, Parameters, Armed Forces Journal International, and The Air and Space Power Journal Proceedings.

Pro-Confederate speeches

Wilkie praised Confederate President Jefferson Davis as a "martyr to 'The Lost Cause'" and an "exceptional man in an exceptional age" in a 1995 speech at the US Capitol. Wilkie also spoke about Robert E. Lee to the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) at a pro-Confederate event in 2009. He also called abolitionists who opposed slavery "radical", "mendacious", and "enemies of liberty", and stated that the Confederate "cause was honorable,"^[15] while also condemning slavery as "a stain on our story as it is a stain on every civilization in history".^[16] Wilkie is a former member of the SCV.^[17]

During Wilkie's confirmation hearings, he misled Senators that he had not spoken to Confederate groups in longer than he really had.^[18] In sworn statements to the Senate as part of the nomination questionnaire, he failed to include his membership in the Confederate Memorial Committee and omitted his event speeches from responses asking for details on them.^[19]

References

External links

• [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/results/leadership/bio_1013.html Robert L. Wilkie], White House biography
• [https://www.defense.gov/About/Biographies/Biography-View/Article/1394799/robert-wilkie/ Robert L. Wilkie], Department of Defense biography
• [https://www.va.gov/opa/bios/secva.asp Veterans Affairs] biography
• DoD News Release "Wilkie Named Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs" United States Department of Defense, October 17, 2006.
• Mike Soraghan, "DoD braces for a fight with Pelosi", The Hill, June 2007.
• {{C-SPAN|110621}}