Marshall Military Conversation: The All-Volunteer Force

Jaron Wharton

A former officer in the United States army with more than 25 years of leadership experience, Jaron Wharton is an expert in strategy, organizational leadership, and operations. His most recent post was as a brigade commander with the 82nd Airborne Division.

He is the lead editor of Bend but Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All Volunteer Force. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2001, and earned a PhD from the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy in 2019.

Charles Q Brown

General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. served as the 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the nation’s highest-ranking military officer and senior military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council.

He now serves as an Executive-in-Residence at Duke University, jointly appointed in the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Pratt School of Engineering. He retired from the U.S. Air Force after nearly 40 years of service, including as the 22nd Chief of Staff and the first African American to lead a military service. A command pilot with 3,100+ flying hours—primarily in the F-16—he led coalition operations across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Peter Feaver

Peter D. Feaver (Ph.D., Harvard, 1990) is a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University.  He is Director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy and Co-PI of the America in the World Consortium. Feaver is author of Thanks For Your Service: The Causes and Consequences of Public Confidence in the US Military (Oxford University Press, 2023), Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations (Harvard Press, 2003) and of Guarding the Guardians: Civilian Control of Nuclear Weapons in the United States (Cornell University Press, 1992).

Lisa Franchetti

Admiral (ret) Lisa Franchetti served as the 33^rd Chief of Naval Operations, retiring in March 2025 after nearly 40 years of dedicated service to the Navy and the Nation. As the Navy’s senior military officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Franchetti advised the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on national security matters, ensuring the Navy’s over 600,000 Sailors and Civilians were ready to execute our Nation’s missions in peace, crisis, and war. Commissioned through the Northwestern University NROTC program in 1985, Franchetti commanded at every level, including USS Ross, Destroyer Squadron 21, U.S. Naval Forces in Korea, two Aircraft Carrier Strike Groups, U.S. SIXTH Fleet, and Striking and Support Forces NATO. Ashore, she served as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Force Development, the Director, Strategy, Plans and Policy on the Joint Staff (J-5), and the 42^nd Vice Chief of Naval Operations. She currently serves as an Independent Board Director at Cincinnati Financial Corporation, a Strategic Advisor for Lockheed-Martin RMS, ServiceNow, Defense Unicorns, and Corridian, and as a consultant for Kearney, and she was a Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute for Politics in Spring 2026.