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A Brief History of the Comptroller’s Office

The office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) was created as part of the Department of Defense in the years immediately following the Second World War. Throughout that conflict – and for most of the nation’s history – the defense of the United States was the responsibility of two separate organizations, the War Department (which oversaw the Army) and the Department of the Navy, each with its own budget and financial operations.

Seals for the War Department, and the Department of the Navy