of defense. so there s some history here. today i urge you to pass the same type of waiver for jim masmas mattis. i believe the raw requiring a secretary of defense to be out of active dutyeast seven years does rain relevant today. but there is also a good reason that there can be on occasion case by case common sense exceptions through congressional actions. the congressional research service has written an excellent paper on the legislative history of the separation from military service retirements. when the original statute was passed in 1947, the department of defense had just been created by merging the department of war and the department of navy. there were several very famous generals and admirals emerging from world war ii who are huely publicized heroes including a few five stars. and congress did not want one