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Organization

U.S. Department of Defense

Federal department that ordered and then closed a review of the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor.

13 links, 3 backed by primary records

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Also known as
Pentagon

Connections 13

headed by

people who worked here

awarded a contract to

  • Kellogg Brown & Root Dec 2001 LOGCAP III (logistics support for troops) Primary record 4

    The Wartime Contracting Commission says the base contract was awarded competitively and KBR was the sole provider. Its value grew to more than $36.3 billion as the wars expanded.

  • Lockheed Martin 2020 $75.2B, Pentagon prime contracts, fiscal year 2020 Scholarship & press 5

    Hartung’s Table 1 lists $47.1 billion for fiscal year 2019 and $75.2 billion for 2020. Contract money is revenue, not profit.

  • RTX 2020 $27.8B, Pentagon prime contracts, fiscal year 2020 (listed as Raytheon) Scholarship & press 5

    Hartung’s Table 1 lists $26.3 billion for fiscal year 2019 and $27.8 billion for 2020.

  • General Dynamics 2020 $21.8B, Pentagon prime contracts, fiscal year 2020 Scholarship & press 5

    Hartung’s Table 1 lists $16.5 billion for fiscal year 2019 and $21.8 billion for 2020.

  • Boeing 2020 $21.7B, Pentagon prime contracts, fiscal year 2020 Scholarship & press 5

    Hartung’s Table 1 lists $15.6 billion for fiscal year 2019 and $21.7 billion for 2020.

  • Northrop Grumman 2020 $20.3B, Pentagon prime contracts, fiscal year 2020 Scholarship & press 5

    Hartung’s Table 1 lists $14.2 billion for fiscal year 2019 and $20.3 billion for 2020.

involved in

Timeline 9 dates
  1. 1964 Robert McNamara head of U.S. Department of Defense
  2. Dec 2001 U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to Kellogg Brown & Root
  3. 2020 U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin
  4. 2020 U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to RTX
  5. 2020 U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to General Dynamics
  6. 2020 U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to Boeing
  7. 2020 U.S. Department of Defense awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman
  8. 2024 Lloyd Austin head of U.S. Department of Defense
  9. 2025 Pete Hegseth head of U.S. Department of Defense
Proof 9 sources
  1. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume I, Vietnam, 1964 (documents 255-308: U.S. reaction to events in the Gulf of Tonkin), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, 1992. Primary record
    At 9:25 a.m., August 4, Secretary of Defense McNamara , Deputy Secretary of Defense Vance , and Lieutenant General David A. Burchinal, Director of the Joint Staff of the JCS , met at the Pentagon.
    The National Military Communications Center in the Department of Defense received the report at 9:30 a.m.
  2. Hegseth says Wounded Knee soldiers will keep their Medals of Honor, The Associated Press (via NBC News), 26 Sep 2025. Scholarship & press
    Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, ordered the review of the awards in 2024
    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that he has decided that the 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for their actions in 1890 at Wounded Knee will keep their awards
  3. Cheney’s Multi-Million Dollar Revolving Door, Mother Jones, 2 Aug 2000. Scholarship & press
    His political career included stints in the White House, Congress and the Defense Department.
    As secretary of defense, Cheney oversaw
  4. Transforming Wartime Contracting: Controlling costs, reducing risks, Final Report to Congress, Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Aug 2011. Primary record
    Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) was awarded the LOGCAP III contract in December 2001, as sole provider.
    The base contract for LOGCAP III was awarded competitively, but lasted for 10 years without competition on any of its task orders.
    War requirements rapidly and unexpectedly expanded the contract value to more than $36.3 billion from the time of award.
  5. Profits of War: Corporate Beneficiaries of the Post-9/11 Pentagon Spending Surge, Costs of War Project, Brown University, 13 Sep 2021. Scholarship & press
    Lockheed Martin 47.1 75.2
    the $75 billion in Pentagon contracts received by Lockheed Martin in FY 2020 is well over one and one-half times the entire budget for the State Department and Agency for International Development for that year, which totaled $44 billion.
    Raytheon 26.3 27.8
    General Dynamics 16.5 21.8
    Boeing 15.6 21.7
    Northrop Grumman 14.2 20.3
  6. Pentagon fails its 8th audit in a row, Task & Purpose, 20 Dec 2025. Scholarship & press
    The Department of Defense once again failed to pass its annual audit, the eighth time in as many years since Congress mandated a full accounting of the Pentagon’s expenses.
  7. Pentagon fails seventh audit in a row, Task & Purpose, 16 Nov 2024. Scholarship & press
    The Department of Defense has not passed one of the mandatory audits since they were implemented in 2018.
  8. Fact Check: Has the Pentagon failed its 7th audit in a row?, Econofact, 20 Dec 2024. Scholarship & press
    None failed outright, but in fifteen there wasn’t enough information to come to a conclusion and in one, isolated, but not pervasive, errors were found.
  9. The U.S. Budgetary Costs of the Post-9/11 Wars, Costs of War Project, Brown University, 1 Sep 2021. Scholarship & press
    the Department of Defense concluded in their most recent public estimate that emergency/overseas contingency operations (OCO) spending for the wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan cost a total of $1.596 Trillion, or $8,094 per taxpayer through FY 2020.
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