This week, Daniel Driscoll of Boone was official sworn in as the United States’ Secretary of the Army.
Driscoll, 38, served in the US Army from 2009 to 2011, served in Iraq, and was a first lieutenant before leaving the Army and working in investment banking. Most recently he has been serving as senior advisor to Vice President-Elect JD Vance. Vance administered his oath of office on Tuesday.
“If you look at our recruiting numbers just in the last month you see a massive increase in the number of people who have decided to volunteer and list & up for the United States Army,” said Vance before the ceremony. “I think that, under the Trump administration, under Secretary Hegseth and now under Secretary Driscoll, we have people proud to join the United States military again.”
In January, Driscoll was confirmed by a bipartisan vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee, with 66 senators backing him, including 16 votes from Democratic lawmakers.
“Having served alongside you in the past, I am eager to support our soldiers, civilians, and their families,” Driscoll said. “Together, we will strengthen our resolve to build military readiness, deter adversaries, modernize our forces, and ensure we remain ready for any challenge ahead.”
Driscoll has deep ties to North Carolina, which is home to ten military installations, including Fort Bragg, one of the largest military installations in the world. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, and went to Yale Law School where he was a classmate of Vance.
Sen. Ted Budd, R-NC, worked to get Driscoll’s nomination through and introduced him at the ceremony.
“I want to give a special ‘thank you’ to Dan Driscoll’s family, his wife Dr. Cassie Driscoll and their two children Daniel Jr. and Lila, for sharing their dad, their husband, with the rest of the country,” said Budd. “Dan has the distinct honor of also being a classmate of our vice president and they both have served our country in uniform and we are forever grateful. Dan, we’re grateful for your service to our country and we know that you’re going to make us proud in your new role as Secretary of the Army.”
Before joining Vance’s team, Driscoll was one of the Republicans who ran for the 11th Congressional District seat vacated by then-Rep. Mark Meadows. Meadows went on to serve as chief of staff in the Trump White House in 2020 and 2021.
Driscoll also completed U.S. Army Ranger school and told the Senate committee that he learned leadership skills while deployed with the 10th Mountain Division as a Cavalry Scout Platoon Leader in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
As the new secretary, Driscoll will lead the Army through complex challenges, including modernizing its capabilities and addressing geopolitical tensions. The military expertise found within North Carolina, and the incoming Trump administration’s focus here, indicate the state’s growing influence on national defense policy.
“He’s a man of great leadership, and I think he will bring the Army to a place where we can be proud of it—where meritorious service is rewarded and commended in the United States Army, where we ensure that we are promoting the best and brightest, enlisting the best and brightest, and, when—God forbid—we have to send the best and brightest to America’s wars, we do so with competence and effectiveness,” said Vance. “We do the job, and then we bring everybody home safely.”
The Army is the nation’s largest military branch with more than one million soldiers in active-duty service.