Army Secretary Eric Fanning and Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James on Thursday appeared on the Comedy Central program "The Daily Show" and discussed with host Trevor Noah the future of the military and the transition to President-elect Donald Trump.

The interview began with James providing a quick primer to the audience on the role of the service secretaries and civilian leadership in the military's chain of command. It then segued into a brief discussion of the end of "don't ask, don't tell," and James and Fanning's status as, respectively, the second female Air Force secretary and the first openly gay service secretary.

And from there, the subject moved directly onto the incoming Trump administration, in which Fanning and James -- unsurprisingly -- confirmed that they will be tendering their resignations. But James said they both will continue working on their plans "until the very last day," while stressing the need for an orderly transition of power, especially as the military has service members in harm's way all over the world.

"There's work to be done," James said.

Noah asked Fanning and James about Trump's campaign claim that "he is the best at military." Fanning smiled, looked down, laughed, and then exchanged glances with James, who herself looked away twice as she appeared to be stifling laughter.

Noah and the studio audience laughed as well, as the host said, "I feel like we're all in the Twilight Zone."

When asked about Trump's campaign claim that troops would follow his orders to kill the families of terrorists, despite the concerns of some that doing so would amount to unlawful orders, Fanning cited the military's dedication to upholding the law and the Constitution.

"We all, all of us, in and out of uniform, take an oath to the Constitution, and the military takes that incredibly seriously," Fanning said. "Most people conflate what the military does with who the military is. The military is an incredibly professional, well-trained, lethal instrument of power for the United States, but civilians decide what it does within the constraints of the law. And we certainly have a number of lawyers who are swirling around us at the Pentagon who make sure that we don't cross those lines."

James also emphasized the need to continue the military's recent push toward increasing diversity, to ensure that the all-volunteer force draws from all available talent pools and has fresh ideas that can improve innovation.

Watch the full interview on the Comedy Central website (the interview starts at minute 14).

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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