The Joint Chiefs (of Staff) are ALL military. The service secretaries are all civilian. You are correct about the JCS. Of course all of the leadership (civilian and military) are advisors.
The secretaries RUN the branches, and are always civilians. It is surprisingly difficult to find a real chain of command, but this article seems to explain it in a way idiots can understand, which is why it was written by the Congressional Research Service (you are not the idiot - Congress is).
Figure 3 shows the Department of the Air Force structure and it is really easy to follow (and I served 10 yrs with 5 at the Pentagon so I know this one). Same for Figure 2 for the Navy. I chose those 2 because of Air Force/Space Force and Navy/Marines.
The service secretaries are at the top of the org charts of their respective services.
Those are all part of the Joint Chief of Staffs who's primary role is to advise the president. They are not in the leadership chain of the military.
Patel Patriot breaks it down quite well in part 9 of his devolution series.
Secnav is literally in charge of rhe navy, not the joint chiefs. JCS are consultants. They command no troops per se.
The Joint Chiefs (of Staff) are ALL military. The service secretaries are all civilian. You are correct about the JCS. Of course all of the leadership (civilian and military) are advisors.
The secretaries RUN the branches, and are always civilians. It is surprisingly difficult to find a real chain of command, but this article seems to explain it in a way idiots can understand, which is why it was written by the Congressional Research Service (you are not the idiot - Congress is).
Figure 3 shows the Department of the Air Force structure and it is really easy to follow (and I served 10 yrs with 5 at the Pentagon so I know this one). Same for Figure 2 for the Navy. I chose those 2 because of Air Force/Space Force and Navy/Marines.
The service secretaries are at the top of the org charts of their respective services.