Gates Recommends Dempsey as Next Army Chief of Staff

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2011 — Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates has rec­om­mend­ed to Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma that he nom­i­nate Army Gen. Mar­tin E. Dempsey to be the next Army chief of staff.

Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates has rec­om­mend­ed to Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma that he nom­i­nate Army Gen. Mar­tin E. Dempsey to be the next Army chief of staff. Dempsey is com­man­der of the Army’s Train­ing and Doc­trine Com­mand at Fort Mon­roe, Va. U.S. Army pho­to Click to enlarge

Gates made the announce­ment at a Pen­ta­gon news conference. 

The Army chief of staff is the high­est-rank­ing sol­dier and serves as a mem­ber of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

If nom­i­nat­ed by the pres­i­dent and con­firmed by the Sen­ate, Dempsey would suc­ceed Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who has served as Army chief of staff since April 2007 and will retire after more than 40 years of service. 

Dempsey, 58, is com­man­der of the Army’s Train­ing and Doc­trine Com­mand, based at Fort Mon­roe, Va. 

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Dempsey a “cre­ative thinker and a ter­rif­ic sol­dier” who has his unequiv­o­cal support. 

Dempsey served as the act­ing com­man­der of U.S. Cen­tral Com­mand upon the retire­ment of Navy Adm. William Fal­lon in 2008. He took up the Train­ing and Doc­trine Command’s reins in Decem­ber 2008. 

Dempsey com­mand­ed the 1st Armored Divi­sion in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and he served as com­man­der of the Multi­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Tran­si­tion Com­mand in Iraq from 2007 to 2008. 

He was com­mis­sioned as a sec­ond lieu­tenant fol­low­ing grad­u­a­tion from the U.S. Mil­i­tary Acad­e­my at West Point, N.Y., in 1974. He was assigned to Ger­many as an armor offi­cer, and he served with the 3rd Armored Divi­sion dur­ing Oper­a­tion Desert Storm. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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