A Northport native who began his career answering to Richard Shelby is now running the United States Army.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday named Adam Telle acting secretary of the Army, hours after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned following months of friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump reached past the Army’s undersecretary, who would ordinarily fill the job, to install Telle, who had been serving as assistant secretary of the Army for civil works since August 2025.
“He is a great patriot, who is respected by all,” Trump wrote in announcing the move.
Hegseth, whose clashes with Driscoll drove the vacancy, endorsed the pick: “Huge congrats to Adam. Strong and whip smart. He is indeed a great patriot.”
Huge congrats to Adam. Strong and whip smart. He is indeed a great Patriot — and will be an immediate asset to the @USArmy. https://t.co/AOOlUgw4E6
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) September 3, 2026
The Army’s official biography describes Telle as “a patriotic native of rural Northport, Alabama.”
He graduated from Tuscaloosa County High School in 2000 then crossed the state line for Mississippi State University, where he was student body president and earned magna cum laude degrees in computer science and communication from the Bagley College of Engineering.
U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who employed Telle as chief of staff from 2021 until his nomination, laid out the Alabama roots when he introduced Telle to the Senate at his confirmation hearing in May 2025:
“As a native of Northport, Alabama, Adam began his Senate career in the Office of Senator Richard Shelby in 2005,” Hagerty said. “Starting in 2007, he worked for the next 10 years in the Office of the late Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi,” where he “rose through the ranks to become Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director.”
Telle went on to run the staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s homeland security subcommittee and led the Senate team in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs during Trump’s first term, where Hagerty credited him with work on the Abraham Accords and the creation of the Space Force.
Hagerty named him chief of staff in August 2021.
For the past year, Telle has overseen the entire civil works program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency that controls the Port of Mobile’s harbor deepening, the locks and dams on the Alabama, Tombigbee and Tennessee rivers, and flood control across the state. He is married with two children and, per the Army, spends his free time “enjoying the Gulf of America.”
He inherits an Army short on Senate-confirmed leadership in the middle of an armed conflict with Iran.
Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, a Driscoll ally, months ago, and Gen. Christopher LaNeve has been doing double duty as acting chief of staff and vice chief since.
Driscoll took his concerns about Hegseth’s handling of the Army directly to Trump in a White House meeting before stepping down, The Atlantic reported. On his way out, Driscoll wrote on X that the job had been “the honor of a lifetime.”
The turnover has worn thin with Alabama’s most senior voice on defense.
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters at the Capitol earlier this week: “I’m tired of all the churn. I want to see some stability.”
Telle takes over the Army after two decades on Capitol Hill and one year in the Pentagon.
The White House has not said whether Trump intends to nominate him for the permanent post.
Any nomination would go before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) sits, and Rogers’ House committee would oversee the Army under his leadership in the meantime.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
