**FILE** Pentagon Comptroller Robert F. Hale listens as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen testify regarding the Department of Defense fiscal 2012 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 15, 2011. (Associated Press)
**FILE** Pentagon Comptroller Robert F. Hale listens as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen testify regarding the Department of Defense fiscal 2012 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 15, 2011. (Associated Press)
President Obama, accompanied by his national security team, speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington on April 28, 2011. From left are, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Vice President Joe Biden; outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates; the president, Defense Secretary-nominee Leon Panetta; CIA Director-nominee Gen. David Petraeus; and top commander-designate for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Allen, and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan-designate Ryan Crocker. (Associated Press)
**FILE** Secretary of Defense Robert Gates listens to a question during a media availability at the Pentagon on June 16, 2011. (Associated Press)
** FILE ** In a Thursday, June 16, 2011, file photo, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaks during a media availability at the Pentagon in Washington. The College of William and Mary has named former U.S. Defense Secretary Gates as its next chancellor. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
**FILE** Secretary of Defense Robert Gates listens to a question during a media availability at the Pentagon on June 16, 2011. (Associated Press)
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a media conference after a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, June 9, 2011. NATO defense ministers shift their focus from Libya to Afghanistan during talks on Thursday. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, left, speaks during a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, right, at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, June 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
President Obama (left) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (center) walk on May 30, 2011, to the Rose Garden at the White House with Army Gen. Martin Dempsey (front to back right), President Obama's nominee for the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. James Winnefeld, nominee for vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and Gen. Ray Odierno, the nominee for Army Chief of Staff. (Associated Press)
