WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2014 – Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Christine H. Fox, the highest-ranking female official ever to serve in the Defense Department, visited with soldiers and sailors yesterday on her first such trip since taking office in December.
Fox’s first stop was Fort Riley, Kan., where she observed training and met with soldiers and leaders of the 1st Infantry Division. Later, she traveled to San Diego, where she visited the Naval Special Warfare Command and toured the littoral combat ship USS Freedom, which recently participated in typhoon disaster relief efforts in the Philippines.
The acting deputy secretary remained in San Diego overnight. Today at 11:30 a.m. EST, she will deliver keynote remarks at a conference organized by the U.S. Naval Institute. The Pentagon Channel will carry her speech live.
Appointed to the Pentagon’s No. 2 position by President Barack Obama upon the retirement of former Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Fox most recently served as a senior advisor to the national security analysis department at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Before that, she was the director of cost assessment and program evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, serving as the secretary’s principal staff assistant for analyzing and evaluating plans, programs and budgets in relation to U.S. defense objectives and resource constraints.
