Say, whatever happened to the U.S. Secretary of Defense?

There's been no SecDef since President Trump got rid of James Mattis or Mr Mattis quit his post in a fit of pique against Trump, whichever way you want to look at it.  Since then the U.S. nation has had to make do with an acting secretary of defense, who assumed his duties January 1. Prior to this Patrick M. Shanahan served as Deputy of Secretary of Defense from July 2017, put in that position by Mr Trump to oversee the financial windfall Trump saw to it the Pentagon received.  Prior to this Mr Shanahan worked for Boeing for about 30 years, serving in a variety of positions.  

After an initial flurry of activity in February -- a visit to Afghanistan to meet with government leaders and one to the U.S.-Mexico region with JCS chairman Joseph Dunford to inspect conditions there with Homeland -- Mr Shanahan came under investigation by the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General because of allegations he improperly advocated on behalf of his former employer, Boeing Co. The news broke in March. Since then Mr Shanahan has been pretty quiet, although (from Wikipedia's article on him):

In a May 2019 internal memo, Shanahan ordered new restrictions on how information about global operational plans and orders are shared with Congress, such that summaries are provided rather than an actual plan or order that was requested.[32]

Also in May of 2019, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Shanahan as his second defense secretary and cement the acting Pentagon chief against an expected challenging battle with lawmakers and Defense Department officials skeptical of him. [33 - NYT source]

As things stand now, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been directing U.S. defense relations under the close supervision of President Trump and is the most visible face of American defense policy.

As to where this leaves the State Department -- the nation's chief diplomat has been busy in recent days ginning up support for a massive U.S. airstrike on Iran -- a 'targeted' strike of course. From the Washington Examiner a few minutes ago:

[...]

Israeli newspaper Maariv reported Monday that Western diplomats at United Nations headquarters in New York said they were examining a U.S. plan to retaliate with "an aerial bombardment of an Iranian facility linked to its nuclear program," according to the Jerusalem Post. "The bombing will be massive but will be limited to a specific target," an anonymous Western diplomat said.

[...]

As to Mr Shanahan's role, if any, in this flurry of diplomacy: announcing, according to a June 14 DoD report, that the U.S. is trying to gin up support to punish Iran for what Messrs Pompeo and Trump claim are Iran's attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Put another way, the U.S. Secretary of Defense is nowhere to be seen.  

**********