William M. ``Mac'' Thornberry: “After 41 years in uniform, General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking…”

“After 41 years in uniform, General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking military officer in the land, retires today. More than once this year, we on the Armed Services Committee have expressed our gratitude for his service and bid General Dempsey farewell as he testified before our committee for what we expected would be his final hearing; but, time and time again, world events brought him back to us. That underscores what a consequential job General Dempsey has had. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the senior military adviser to both the legislative and executive branches of government. I am personally very grateful for his willingness to spend time, formally and informally, with members of our committee discussing our country's security, providing his best military advice on an unprecedented spectrum of serious and diverse threats during an era of declining resources and when Congress and the President have very different views on national security policy. All of that has been a tremendous challenge. In his four decades of dedicated service, General Dempsey has led our forces against threats far different from those we faced when he left his native New Jersey to become a West Point cadet. Instead of Soviets in the Fulda Gap, General Dempsey has had to confront a newly aggressive Russia, an expanding China, Iranian-backed instability in the Middle East, as well as ISIS and al Qaeda.…”