You are listening to the War in the Rocks podcast strategy, defense, and foreign affairs.

My name is Ryan Evans, I'm the founder of Warren the rocks, and in this episode I spoke with

Russell Rumba, the assistant secretary of the Navy, he is the Navy's Comptroller.

We're going to hear what that's about

and dig deep into the finances of the Navy

and some other things.

Enjoy the show.

So tell us how you got to where you are.

You're the Comptroller for the Navy and we'll get into that,

but you've had a pretty amazing career before that. Let's chat about it.

I'm not sure amazing is the right word, but I've certainly...

Trying to hype you up, man.

Honored to have this experience to try to do my part

and serve the country. The way I say this is my schick is I've been doing defense

budgets for a long time and I've done it from every perspective in the Pentagon on the hill and also getting to do it from a

scholarly point of view both think tanks and teaching and it's just it's a great opportunity

to try to understand the broader trends that are happening but also put it in context

and know the nitty gritty, the hard work, those folks who work for the government every day are trying

to do to put budgets together.

And what were you doing before you took this job?

I've had a whole series of things.

I was fortunate enough to serve in the Office of Secretary of Defense

...