In a time of uncertainty and historic change as important resource decisions are crafted, the 38th Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno yesterday offered a cautionary note, saying the Defense Department should avoid the historic pattern of reducing the military too quickly and becoming too small.
Those decisions must be made with considered thought and understanding of the “risk we incur for the future,” he said at the Change of Responsibility ceremonies at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
Odierno knows what he wants in the Army: a versatile, effective and flexible force able to take decisive action, be relevant and effective across the spectrum of conflict; able to sustain the all-volunteer force, with adaptive and thoughtful leaders.
Odierno succeeds Gen. Martin Dempsey, who will become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff replacing Adm. Mike Mullen after he retires Sept. 30. Dempsey will become the senior ranking member of the Armed Forces and the principal military adviser to the President. He will likely continue to heed a phrase he mentioned: “don’t count the days, make the days count.” That’s a quote attributed to Muhammad Ali.
Looking out at the audience, Odierno said he thought there was one person from every assignment he had in the Army and gave a special shout out to his first three battalion commanders and first three brigade commanders. While all are now retired, through their leadership and mentoring allowed him to learn, make mistakes and improve, shaping his career.
For his part, Gen. Dempsey said though he’d been in office a short 149 days, he’ll leave taking with him a “vocabulary of abstract words brought to life. Courage, determination, and commitment brought to life in places like … well, actually, brought to life wherever you find Soldiers and their families.”
Dempsey said he’s leaving an Army that in the future might be smaller-“probably,” different-“I hope so,” best in the world, “better believe it,” and best for the country-“Absolutely.”
Army Secretary John McHugh noted Dempsey would have a “long lasting” impact on the service, and was well known as a combat commander, thinker and problem solver.
Odierno, McHugh said, was the “essence of the American dream,” the grandson of immigrants who married his high school sweetheart and rose to the top of his profession.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he shared the immigrant background as Dempsey and Odierno, and was himself a former intelligence officer in the Army in the mid-1960s.
Though Dempsey did not serve long as Army chief, his efforts were consequential, Panetta said. One example was enacting the move to a nine-month combat deployment with 18 months at home. When he becomes chairman of the joint chiefs, he will craft a joint force “to ensure it remains the finest fighting force in the world.”
With more than 50 months in Iraq overall, Odierno was the operational architect of the troop surge, and then locked in the gains. In his last post, he oversaw the disestablishment of Joint Forces Command, Panetta said.
Speaking of Dempsey and Odierno, Panetta said, “With these two men, we can tackle any challenge for the future.”
A 1976 graduate of West Point, many of whom were at the ceremonies, Odierno said during those years no one would have thought he’d rise so high, it just shows, “it can happen for anyone.”