By Philip Ewing
2/18/15 3:49 PM EST
Updated 2/18/15 11:00 PM EST
Rear Adm. John Kirby, who became a highly visible face for the Defense Department as it launched the war in Iraq and Syria, is stepping down to make room for a new civilian press secretary.
Kirby acknowledged his departure in a briefing for reporters on Wednesday, a day after Defense Secretary Ash Carter took an oath of office to become President Barack Obama’s fourth Pentagon chief. Carter wants to “revisit” the role of press secretary, Kirby said, so he plans to name a civilian to take over for the two-star admiral who served as the Pentagon’s first uniformed top spokesman.
Story Continued Below
“One of the questions that I think he wants to rhetorically ask, or consider, is not just who the individual is, but what that individual represents, and whether it’s appropriate or not to have a uniform up here,” Kirby said. “Those are fair questions for him to ask as he comes into the job.”
Kirby was asked whether he ever felt constrained because, as a uniformed service member, he’s less free to criticize members of Congress or political leaders. No, he said. “It hasn’t been a big issue for me.”
Kirby’s long service in the Pentagon, previously as the Navy’s chief of public affairs and earlier as the top spokesman for then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, means he has long-standing relationships with many members of the Pentagon press corps. He’s been a fixture on cable TV news networks. And reporters applauded on Wednesday after Associated Press correspondent Lolita Baldor and CNN reporter Barbara Starr hailed Kirby for his depth of knowledge about the military.
Kirby and Carter are not known to have clashed, but they apparently do not have a close relationship. New secretaries of defense typically name their own new top spokesmen when they arrive. For instance, Kirby’s predecessor, George Little, accompanied Leon Panetta when he came to the Pentagon from the CIA.
Although Carter has not yet decided on a new press secretary, he’s begun filling other key roles.
Air Force Undersecretary Eric Fanning is set to become his chief of staff, and Army Maj. Gen. Ron Lewis is expected to become his top military adviser.
Kirby’s next moves are unclear. Two-star public affairs officers are rare, and as the first uniformed Pentagon press secretary, there’s no precedent for him to follow.
He began his naval career as a surface warfare officer, but like many officers, reached a point at which he wanted to stay in the service but not go back to sea. So during a stint as an instructor at the Naval Academy, Kirby and a colleague took a marker and drew several slices of “pie” on a paper plate, then pinned on a wooden tongue depressor from the sick bay.
Kirby and his friend spun the dial, and he wound up with public affairs — although he did wind up going back to sea as the final shipboard spokesman for the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal.
“Once I got into the community, I made every effort to learn the craft and become proficient,” Kirby told an interviewer last month. “But becoming a PAO was the best decision I actually never made.”