It's....not. It's part of the Department of Defense. Although this department includes the military forces (minus the coast guard), the vast majority of its member agencies are all civilian agencies, and the person who heads it up (Secretary of Defense) is a civilian.
> It's....not [part of the military]. It's part of the Department of Defense.
I think you're picking hairs. While NSA is not strictly a military branch, NSA is a defense agency within the DoD. It is not directed by a civilian, but by a commissioned officer of the military. That seems pretty damned close enough to me.
> the vast majority of its member agencies are all civilian agencies
I don't know how you came to this conclusion, as the actual numbers and ratio of military vs. civilian personnel is still classified to the best of my knowledge. To the best of my (circumstantial) knowledge, the ratio for civilian vs. (usually US Navy) military personnel is likely somewhere around 60/40. I couldn't tell you which category is civilian vs. military, though.
> the person who heads it up (Secretary of Defense) is a civilian.
I'd love to know how you came up with your conclusions, as you seem to have some familiarity with the Beltway, because they don't match my experiences.
> I don't know how you came to this conclusion, as the actual numbers and ratio of military vs. civilian personnel is still classified to the best of my knowledge. To the best of my (circumstantial) knowledge, the ratio for civilian vs. (usually US Navy) military personnel is likely somewhere around 60/40. I couldn't tell you which category is civilian vs. military, though.
I'm not saying this to be mean, but you didn't parse my comment properly, so I'll break it down.
>Although this department includes the military forces (minus the coast guard), the vast majority of its member agencies are all civilian agencies, and the person who heads it up (Secretary of Defense) is a civilian.
This department is referring to the Department of Defense. The next sentence refers to its member agencies, not the members of its agencies. The member agencies (the agencies that are a part of the Department of Defense) are mostly civilian agencies, which you can see listed out on the wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Def...
In it, you'll see that there are 15 defense agencies, 4 intelligence agencies, and 3 military departments, for a grand total of 19 to 3.
The "it" in that sentence is referring to the Department of Defense -- which was initiated by "this department". The person you linked to DIRNSA, which has nothing to do with what I was saying.
It is a building where the DoD and all of the top military brass work. All DoD aka "military" decisions ultimately come from the Pentagon, where the final say for all things DoD reside.
Disclaimer: I never worked at the pentagon, but am a US Army veteran who was in Military Intelligence from 2001-2005.
Well - NSA _is_ military.