A single person held this position before it was replaced in January 1972 by the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Telecommunications), an office with more weight in the Pentagon bureaucracy.

In March 1981, the office was retitled Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Communications, Command, Control, and Intelligence, a position with more bureaucratic weight than that of an assistant secretary.

In his remarks, Punaro recommended downsizing the Combatant Commands and all OSD organizations, "particularly the elimination of Networks and Information Integration.

"[5] On August 9, Secretary Gates announced at a press conference that DoD will be eliminating the office of the ASD(NII), and DISA will assume its information technology operational responsibilities.

According to Gates, " The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration or NII was set up in 2003 when policy, oversight and advocacy functions for command, control and communications split off from intelligence.

The resulting arrangement for dealing with enterprise IT and hardware issues, which includes a similar function for the J-6 on the Joint Staff, has since become redundant, costly and cumbersome.

"[6] At the same time, Gates also announced that DoD would be standing up a "refashioned and strengthened" CIO, a position whose existence is mandated in the Clinger-Cohen Act.