Aren't these what the soviets called "political officers"? Sounds like the exact same thing
Well sort of. We prefer to call it "civilian control of the military". All Presidents put their guys in at the top echelons, down about 3 or 4 levels at the DoD, and 2-3 levels in the service secretariats. Uniformed members aside. They don' work for those civilians anyway, at least those in the combat commands, except for the Secretary of Defense. The chain of command goes from the President to the SecDef to the combat commanders. It goes through the Chairman of the Joint chiefs, but only for communications purposes. The Chairman is the principal military advisor to the President, the SecDef and the National Security Council. I pity the poor SOB right now.
Thus all those civilians affect mainly procurement and R&D, not operational matters. Again, with the exception or some of those who work at DoD, and thus advise the SecDef.