General Martin Dempsey, USA it is.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey is the Obama administration's choice to become the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, succeeding Adm. Mike Mullen, who will retire Oct. 1, ABC News has learned.I've seen him on many a VTC, know his work in AFG, and have no strong feelings either way about him, but he is a solid choice. Enough time in DC to know where the minefields are - but not too much time in DC to be of DC.
An administration official confirmed the White House's surprise selection of the veteran officer who became the Army's top officer last month.
Dempsey's selection finishes out the realignment of the Obama administration's Pentagon team brought on by the retirements of Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will replace Gates as defense secretary when he leaves his post June 30.
On a superficial level, it was time for an Army CJCS. I do not agree with those who think that it will be bad for advancing the best military for tomorrow's challenges (which are mostly air & sea) by having an Army guy at the top. No - I am willing to give Dempsey the benefit of the doubt that he will focus on the priorities that are best for our nation and its military. Give him a chance, he deserves it.
Dempsey joined the Army in '74. That is a good data point for the next CJCS. As a JO he saw post-Vietnam up close and personal. His will be a tour with similar issues. Our nation's military needs someone with an understanding of the war we are in and a perspective to help us prepare for a decade of tremendous budget pressures.
Don't panic, I think we are setting up nicely. As for Admiral Mullen's tour - we'll discuss that later. For now, good luck General Dempsey, congratulations!
Before you leave as Army Chief of Staff - could you get rid of Shinseki's "everyone-gets-a-trophy" stoopid berets? Now get to work.
35 comments:
just walked by mattis and he's visibly bummed. i saw him right before his centcom announcement and right before gen allen's announcement to relieve petraeus. no big grin this time. patton incarnate.
With Leon "The Knife" coming into DoD to ostensibly gut the budget, Team Big O would not put anyone in CJCS that they thought wouldn't go along with the plan. By not selecting an Air Force Officer or a SWO, my guess is that their first target is going to be the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, probably soon followed by shipbuilding. We could very likely witness a reduction in the total end strength of the Navy as well as the fleet at large. LCS will survive, of course, but cruiser A-MOD is in big danger. I think we might see those fellas decommed earlier than planned. That will be a dark day for the Navy.
Reading the tea leaves here, LPD-17 is going to be an O-6 command. That tells me all I need to know about cruiser longevity.
I have a quote hanging up at my not-e-ring desk from General Mattis to Iraqi tribal leaders:
"I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes. If you f--- with me, <span>I'll kill you all."</span>
<span></span>
Thanks to General Mattis for not only being an ass kicker, but an inspiring leader and an exceptionally well informed and well educated General Officer of Marines.
"Its time for an Army CJCS"
Just like its time for an Aviator CNO-fat chance that's going to happen though.
Dempsey picked to downsize the military. Obama didn't get elected to maintain a strong military, but to reshape the domestic landscape into a socialist bastion of well intentioned moralizers.
And despite the press that Dempsey's an innovator, he's actually just a slightly more articulate corporate drone. To beat insomnia, read his 1700 word article on building strategic leaders in the Feb issue of Armed Forces Journal.
I'll see your Courtney Massengale and raise you one, well not exactly, Sam Damon...
A-Mod has to happen. If it doesn't it has wide ranging ripple effects on other programs like Navy BMD-which is a Presidential priority.
PLEEEEEASE get rid of this damn beret!
If we see some "Old Arrrrmmmmyyyy" talk about duty, honor, and country, I'd be happy no matter what else comes. We could certainly use George Marshall Redux.
We ought to start a campaign to have him appointed as Director of NSC, or as Hillary's replacement at State.
cjcs has no control over his service's uniforms. mullen got the joint staff out of their pajamas to avoid murtha harrassment but couldn't get his fancy dan khakis to replace any current uniforms (optional fy12 duds).
TOTALLY agree on the stupid beret bit. But the "real" driving force behind that decision was the fact that it fit MUCH better on most female hair-do's than the garrison cap (i.e., piss-cutter/cunt-cap.( PLUS the feminists HATED the latter term w. a passion. The adoption may have been born out of the "everyone-gets-throphies" ethos, but female complaints about the garrison cap played no small part. PC sgtrikes again
PS: And what Salty Gator said!
On that photo with your sorry excuse for a president, Shinseki looks like a politician.
not if you convert enough DDGs to become BMD shooters. Remember, POTUS doesn't give a damn about SAG v SAG. He does care about BMD in so much as it is NAVY BMD and not ARMY / USAF BMD. If the CG's are going to cost you too much to do ESL, they will be cut when you show that you can recover the delta in BMD shooters by converting DDGs.
that will end up being one John F-ing Kerry. Mark my words.
e-ringer. Look at my post again ... and see what job Dempsey has .. and what job Shinseki had .... and then appologize to Andrew.
.... your favorite NFO 3-star perhaps?
The conventional wisdom was that the reason the CSA changes the uniform is because that is the one thing he can accomplish during his term of office.
I know! Lets Inspire the troops by giving them a completly worthless peice of headgear.
Rain? Snow? Sunshine? Cant do a damn thing about any of those. But hey it makes you look french and hip......to everyone but other Americans who no matter what you do still view the beret as something only women and french people wear.
good god, man. you can't expect him to fix their uniforms between now and 1 october!
E-ringer - well he could if he wanted to, but no, he won't - even if he served a full term in that position.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Bettin' you're right, Andrew!
There really is no BMD but Navy BMD now. Sure the Army has THAAD-but they will be years getting it up to strength in #'s of batteries. Aegis afloat and Aegis Ashore are the centerpiece of EVERY theater's architechure. I guess you could convert more DDG's-and they will-but the Navy is still having a hard time making the COCOMS understand that they are multi-mission ships. And the poor DDG crews are getting the stuffing beat out of them. I read somewhere the Navy is losing one FC a WEEK because of their OPTEMPO.
Actually I was thinking more along the lines of Sponge. Hopefully my favorite NFO three star has moved on to criminal pursuits in the civilian world.
that's not true at all, Skippy. The Airforce has intercepters and sensors...airborne and space borne. Besides THAAD, Army has PAC-3 and a few other arrows in their quiver. TPY-2 is a joint USAF / USA sensor, and the BMD network that is still NOT fielded is a MDA / USAF project. AEGIS Ashore is a frickin' joke. You have considerably less dB sensitivity than an AN/TPY-2...why do you think that the russians objected to all of the land based systems but not to NAVY BMD to include AEGIS Ashore?
At the end of the day, the COCOMS need to take a powder on BMD. They need to recognize what it is that they are actually getting with the deployable BMD shooters and WHAT THEY ARE NOT. Kinetic hard kill of ballistic missiles makes my head hurt. I know the physics of both the radar piece as well as the interceptor piece from a past job VERY well; however, I think we need to focus a lot more on the soft kill portion (EA and Lasers to blind, not kill the missiles). Save the HARD KILL for targets that you can't move (FARPS, APODS, SPODS). Places that are on dry land that you still care if the missile misses and lands in a city instead. And be HONEST, the best defense is a dry land defense for all of those scenarios...the geometry does not support an AEGIS solution unless your DDG has wheels. But for Navy BMD defense of the sea base, time to stop shooting $35M missiles at $1M ballistic missiles.
Well i had heard of a dedicated BMD vessel but no idea where that is now.
Really when you get right down to it Navy BMD is the best. It can be placed anywhere and have its strength boosted as needed. Also moving targets are far better than stationary ones. Hell besides BMD to the north no reason we need them elsewhere really.
That will be a tough sell-to both the Navy and MDA. The money is drying up and there are some hard choices to be made on which systems to save and which to stop pouring money into. C2BMC is fielded at certain COCOMS, whether they have the money to uprgrade the software is the question. TPY-2 is an Army lead service-but MDA so far has done all of the site activation and deployment preparations.
And don't knock Aegis Ashore too hard-it paid for my trip to Romania last year. For which I am eternally grateful :)
One of my Army colleagues at CENTCOM quipped, at the time the beret was introduced, "Great. Now we have crew-served headgear in our ruck."
How about Sal's favorite piece of Army gear...ye reflective belt....
We know it made his day during IA gear issue!
C2BMC exists in some COCOMS, yes, but you and I know that it isn't enough against certain scenarios requiring multiple shooters, certain functionalities due to constraints in bandwidth and certain sensor integration (JESUS CAN WE PLEASE GET A SIPR SITE FOR THE CDR SALAMANDER BLOG?!?!)
James, that again is just not true. Geometry works against you in so many of these scenarios. Your AEGIS shooter does NOT have wheels. And you only have so much sensitivity with the current SPY-1 radar. You need the AMDR (air and missile defense radar) with exponentially greater sensitivity, which in turn requires exponentially more power and cooling. You were going to get that from CG(X). But it was cancelled because at $9B a pop, they were unaffordable!
I was wrong about Winnefeld from a few posts back.. I thought he was gonna be CJCS.. he is gonna be the deputy.. missed by a smidge...
Me too....heard he was the front runner but who knows, he may get bumped up in the future. Looks like that move give Stavridis the nod for CNO....we shall see.
My sources Say Stavrides may retire... a shame he would make a damn fine CNO
E-ringer - to my amazement, GEN Dempsey and the SMA have announced the beret is being replaced with the Patrol Cap for wear with the ACU (and one can sew on name tags and stuff instead of using the velcro!), although it is still the preferred headgear for the Army Service Uniform. Reason prevails, at least a little.
Post a Comment