That's how history wrote it but since the Goldwater-Nichols Act in 1986, the JCOS haven't been part of the military chain of command. They have no one to command and no orders to issue. The only mission of the JCOS since 1986 is to advise POTUS.
During the first Iraq war the chain of command was G.H. Bush as the CnC, Dick Cheney as the Sec.of Defense and then Gen. Schwarzkopf.
Don't get me wrong, I consider Gen. Powell one of the best if not the best Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since the end of WW ll.
As you probably already know every Democrat President since the end of WW ll has tried to disband the Marine Corps except for JFK and LBJ.
When President Clinton tried it, it was Gen. Powell who came to the defense of the Corps.
Even President Obama tried to disbanded the Corps in 2009 and it's no secret that Obama hates U.S. Marines and the Marine Corps.
>" T
he Goldwater–Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 Pub.L. 99–433, (signed by President Ronald Reagan), made the most sweeping changes to the United States Department of Defense since the department was established in the National Security Act of 1947 by reworking the command structure of the United States military. It increased the powers of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and implemented some of the suggestions from The Packard Commission, commissioned by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. Among other changes, Goldwater–Nichols streamlined the military chain of command, which now runs from the President through the Secretary of Defense directly to combatant commanders (CCDRs), bypassing the service chiefs. The service chiefs were assigned to an advisory role to the President and the Secretary of Defense as well as given the responsibility for training and equipping personnel for the unified combatant commands..."<
Goldwater