Secretary of Safeguard Hagel publicizes his resignation – USA TODAY

President Obama speaks as Secretary of Safety Chuck Hagel and Vice President Biden appear on throughout a press convention asserting Hagel’s resignation within the State Eating Room of the White Home on Nov. 24, 2014.(Picture: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Photography)

WASHINGTON — President Obama introduced the resignation of Chuck Hagel Monday, commending the secretary of security for his “regular hand” thru a duration of transition for America’s military.

Obama suggested that it was Hagel’s decision to resign, saying, “If there’s one thing I know about Chuck, it’s that he does not make this or any other decision lightly.”

Hagel arrived at the Pentagon in February 2013 during a period of belt-tightening and disengagement for the military, but ended up leading the fight against new and different enemies — the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and the Ebola outbreak in western Africa.

The 68-year-old Hagel said he will say on the job “every day, every moment” until his successor is nominated and confirmed by the Senate. “It’s been the greatest privilege of my life to lead, and most importantly, to serve,” Hagel said in announcement from the White House Monday morning.

A White House official said Hagel began speaking with Obama about departing the administration beginning in October, noting that the midterm congressional elections provided a natural transition. Obama has also spoken to many top administration officials about whether they would stay on for the last two years of his presidency, the official said.

Administration officials said possibilities for Hagel’s job include Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of Defense for policy who was runner-up for the slot when Obama tapped Hagel in early 2013; Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a defense specialist and a former officer with the Army’s 82nd Airborne; and Ashton B. Carter, a former deputy secretary of Defense.

There are conflicting accounts of whether Obama asked Hagel to step down or he resigned voluntarily.

The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that Obama asked Hagel to resign on Friday after two weeks of discussions about the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State. The Times first reported the resignation Monday.

But the the senior Defense official denied that, calling it “a mutual decision between Hagel and Obama.”

Hagel was the first enlisted combat veteran to serve as Secretary of Defense. “He volunteered for Vietnam and still has the scars and shrapnel from the battled he has fought,” Obama said.

Obama nominated Hagel in January, 2013 to succeed Leon Panetta. As a former senator from Nebraska who had forced a friendship with Obama in the Senate, Hagel became the only Republican on Obama’s national security team.

“We come from different parties, but in accepting this position, you sent a powerful message, especially to those in this city, that when it comes to our national security and our military families, our country always comes first,” Obama said Monday.

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The announcement comes shortly after Obama approved plans to give U.S. military commanders bigger roles alongside Afghanistan forces as they fight the Taliban following the end of the U.S. combat operation next month. The U.S. also developing plans to try to roll back the Islamic State.

Hagel got off to a rocky start even before he was sworn in. His confirmation hearings before the Senate, with former colleagues from his own Republican Party, were contentious. Although relations with Capitol Hill improved over the last two years, Hagel still struggled to articulate Pentagon policies in briefings and speeches.

“Chuck and I have worked well together, and we have often seen eye to eye on our biggest national security challenges – ISIS, the conflict in Syria, the war in Afghanistan, a rising China, and most of all, sequestration,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement. He also said that Hagel was frustrated by the administration’s national security policy and decision-making process, and that defense secretaries have been micro-managed by the Obama White House.

After Hagel’s trip to Asia, including a scheduled stop in Vietnam was cancelled earlier this month, a senior Defense Department official told USA TODAY that it signaled trouble for Hagel. Officials from the White House and Pentagon immediately denied that Hagel was considering or being pushed to step down.

Obama will be the first president since Harry Truman to have four defense secretaries during his time in office. The position was created during Truman’s tenure in 1947.

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