Only one of the civil service secretaries had made it to the office.

Two of the three current service secretaries are former defense industry executives.

Mr. Thompson, the health and human services secretary, has come under particular criticism.

Each is led by a service secretary, who is below Cabinet rank.

Kim Belshé, the state's health and human services secretary, said the governor had expected people to disagree with elements of his plan.

Her attention was riveted on the fax the legal services secretary had forwarded with a note saying Thought you'd want to see this right away.

So we will continue to look at it, and I will follow up with the information that comes from the service secretaries.

The service secretaries are civilians responsible for budgets, recruiting and training, but not combat operations.

The lawyers for the service secretaries are supposed to focus on issues like contracts, environmental impact statements and base closings.

Pentagon officials said that all of the military service chiefs and the service secretaries were accounted for after the attack.