The Pentagon

In a tent at Nellis Air Force Base on the northern edge of Las Vegas, the officer in charge of a U.S. Air Force drone unit strolled into a meeting with the 20 or so pilots and sensor operators under his command. It was in the winter of 2005-2006, and the officer just wanted to try out some ideas he had for boosting unit morale, he recalled later in a conversation with an Air Force historian.

The cold and snow that walloped Washington didn't stop Ashton Carter from reporting for work at the Pentagon Tuesday. Carter was sworn in as the 25th U.S. Secretary of Defense on Tuesday. Sworn in by Vice President Biden at the White House Tuesday, Carter formally replaces Chuck Hagel, becoming President Obama's fourth defense chief in the past six years. Carter's debut at the Pentagon this morning was briefly interrupted when his wife, Stephanie, "slipped and fell on the icy pavement," the AP reports. "She laughed it off, and officials indicated she was not injured."

Ashton B. Carter officially became the 25th U.S. secretary of defense on Tuesday, taking the oath of office at the White House in a ceremony with Vice President Biden. Carter, standing next to his wife, Stephanie, took the oath of office in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. He said that becoming secretary of defense was the “highest honor,” and he thanked his wife, two children and others who have helped him prepare for the job. “I am honored to rejoin the men and women of the Defense Department in what is the highest calling, which is the defense of our country,” he said.

Do you like watching Internet videos and then drawing broad, sweeping, pseudoscientific conclusions about the people involved? If so, congratulations, you might be qualified to join the Pentagon’s secret team investigating the nonverbal cues of powerful world leaders. Yesterday, following Freedom of Information Act requests by a group of news organizations including Politico, the Pentagon released two studies, both published here in full for the first time, analyzing Vladimir Putin's inner demons—or at least those inner demons that you can observe from watching a ton of publicly available videos.

Congress’ abomination of a defense spending bill is all about pleasing weapons manufacturers and diverting funds to useless projects. Who says Democrats and Republicans can’t get along? This week president Obama signed a massive one-stop bill (a.k.a “Cromnibus”) that will keep the government funded until the end of the fiscal year. Among other things, the bill appropriates $1.1 trillion in funding—including over $550 billion for the Department of Defense.

It was the end of the road for Chuck Hagel last week and the Washington press corps couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about writing his obituary. In terms of pure coverage, it may not have been Ferguson or the seven-foot deluge of snow that hit Buffalo, New York, but the avalanche of news reports was nothing to be sniffed at. There had been a changing of the guard in wartime Washington. Barack Obama’s third secretary of defense had gone down for the count. In the phrase of the moment, he had “resigned under pressure.” Sayonara, Chuck! With a unanimity that crossed political lines, the accounts read as if written by a single reporter.

Today's the last day for Congress to pass a budget deal and avert a government shutdown. Part of the $1.1 trillion "Cromnibus" package is the 2015 defense budget. While there's been some wrangling over pay and benefits for service members, finalizing the Pentagon budget has been relatively uncontentious.

President Obama is closing in on appointing his new Secretary of Defense to replace Chuck Hagel, and "barring any last minute complications," he will choose Ashton B. Carter, report CNN's Jamie Crawford and Barbara Starr. And an Associated Press report says that, according to a senior GOP senator, Carter has already been chosen.