John J. Salesses is a retired major general who appreciates knowing, on a basic level at least, what his four grownup children are up to.

So the 91-year-old Rhode Islander was aware that his second-oldest son, Robert G. Salesses, had reached a pay grade of GS-15 in his job at the Pentagon. That’s the highest pay grade available for federal employees.

Then, about a week ago, Salesses recalls, one of his other sons told him something interesting:

“Bob” was in line to serve as acting U.S. Secretary of Defense in the opening days of the second administration of President Donald J. Trump.

The magnitude of such a responsibility isn’t something that’s fuzzy to someone like Salesses, even at his advanced age.

The Warren retiree once directed the entire U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. The reserve force has about 35,000 personnel serving all over the world, he says.

The much bigger job that his son took over on Inauguration Day left the younger Salesses with enormous responsibility at a moment of growing global instability.

Ukraine is being ravaged by the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, with Russian leaders raising the specter of nuclear war on occasion. An Iranian missile attack was part of a recent exchange between Iran and Israel this past fall. Barely a month ago, the largest armada of Chinese warships since the 1990s took to the waters of the South China Sea.

A short assignment?

As of Wednesday, Robert Salesses’ tenure wasn’t expected to be lengthy. Just until the U.S. Senate had confirmed Trump’s pick, either Pete Hegseth or someone else.

The father of the acting secretary, or “SECDEF,” as it’s known in bureaucratic jargon, afforded his son some space. There would be time for catching up later.

Raised in Barrington, exposed to Camp Lejeune

Robert G. Salesses was born in San Diego.

His mother, the late Dolores Ann “Lola” Salesses, and his father opted to raise their family in Barrington.

His father mostly worked the schedule of a Marine reservist. The elder Salesses tought English at Rhode Island College. He held administrative jobs as a dean and vice president for academic affairs.

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He did not try to groom his sons for military life. But they were exposed to it during some of his reserve stints at Camp Lejeune.

Robert Salesses went to Rhode Island College and graduated in 1980. He worked in the private sector.

His younger brother, a future military pilot, decided one day that he would join the Marine Corps.

“Bob said, ‘I’m going to go, too,’” their father recalled on Friday.

In the Marines, he would participate in the 1991 liberation of Kuwait during the Gulf War, according to a biography posted online by the Department of Defense.

Some of Robert Salesses’ other jobs in the Marines involved carrying out the withdrawal of critical nuclear stockpiles from former Soviet States, development of multinational counternarcotics policies with Central and South American allies; and crisis planning within the European and Pacific theaters of operation, according to the posted bio.

Hefty U.S. defense responsibilities and a ‘proud moment’

After retiring from the Marines, during his career in the Defense Department, Salesses’ tasks put him in a range of positions. The bio says one of those jobs involved management of $1.2 billion in defense resources.

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Another “sensitive” task, it says, involved making sure the secretary of defense and other senior leaders had “the means to execute DoD’s primary mission essential functions.”

The younger Salesses has worked as a professional staff member under the leadership of Democratic and Republican presidents.

“He got to know the defense system pretty well,” his father said Friday. “It’s a proud moment.”

“I think this is his last day,” he added.

He anticipated that his son would continue to serve in the department under the secretary chosen by the president.

And late Friday night, Hegseth, an Army veteran and former “Fox & Friends” co-host, was confirmed by the Senate on a narrow 51-50 vote.