Chuck Hagel
American soldier and politician
Charles Timothy Hagel ( HAY-gəl; born October 4, 1946) is an American politician and Army veteran who served as the 24th United States secretary of defense from 2013 to 2015 in the administration of Barack Obama. He previously served as chairman of the president's Intelligence Advisory Board from 2009 to 2013 and as a United States senator representing Nebraska from 1997 to 2009.
A recipient of two Purple Hearts while an infantry squad leader in the Vietnam War, Hagel returned home to start careers in business and politics. He co-founded Vanguard Cellular, the primary source of his personal wealth, and served as president of the McCarthy Group, an investment banking firm, and CEO of American Information Systems Inc., a computerized voting machine manufacturer. A member of the Republican Party, Hagel was first elected to the United States Senate in 1996. He was reelected in 2002, but did not run in 2008.
On January 7, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Hagel to serve as Secretary of Defense. On February 12, 2013, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved Hagel's nomination by a vote of 14–11. On February 14, 2013, Senate Republicans did not vote with Democrats so there were not 60 votes needed to end the debate on Hagel's nomination and proceed to a final vote, citing the need for further review. It was the first time that a nominee for Secretary of Defense was filibustered, although candidates for other cabinet offices had been filibustered before.
“Chuck Hagel” enters the record as american soldier and politician. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chuck, Hagel and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q381670. The first chronological checks are 1946, 2013, 2015 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chuck Hagel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.