J. Daniel Howard Carlucci and his deputy, General Colin Powell. Howard focussed on arms control issues and remained through the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in January 1988. He also dealt with many issues associated with the Iran–Contra affair. On December 21, 1987, President Reagan nominated Howard to serve as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) and Howard would hold this post from February 1988 through May 1989. He worked for Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci and dealt with the aftermath of the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the U.S.S. "Vincennes" and the explosion of a gun mount
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness the Assistant Secretary of Defense(Force Management and Personnel) and authorizing authority over the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Since the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 was signed on 5 October 1999, the Under Secretary has been responsible for establishing standards on deployment of units away from assigned duty stations, the length of time they may be away for a deployment away from assigned duty stations, and for establishing systems for reporting tracking deployments. When created in 1993, the USD(P&R) assumed authority primarily over three DoD offices: