He has never properly stood up for the DoD. He has simply has bent over for Obama. That is why Barry Soetoro chose him. Hagel furloughed over 700,000 Defense employees, including doctors, nurses, and maintainers. He allowed our Army Brigade Combat Teams to go down from over 40 units ready, to 2. The Air Force was robbed of so much money that it didn't even have fuel for its aircraft, and 11 combat squadrons were grounded. The Navy was forced to cancel tours for carriers, subs, and ships - and maintenance went into the toilet.
The DoD faces 8 more years of this crap. Thousands of highly trained professionals have quit the DoD in disgust, such as this:
Military civilian medical workers quit after furloughs
Some of that was the Sequester that was handed to him, but the difference between him and Leon Panetta was night and day. Panetta was visibly fighting for our military - on Capitol Hill, on the Sunday shows, and in front of the media every day. Panetta gave speeches to the uniformed military, telling them they were valued to and do keep up the good fight.
Hagel showed up hung over and told people they sucked, and it would only get worse. He wasn't going to do anything about it either, because he had better things to do with his precious time.