General Martin E. Dempsey Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
The past 10 years have been some of the most challenging in our military’s history. Our service members and their families have endured every hardship and met every challenge with courage and dignity throughout.
The responsibility for defending our nation is one we have proudly carried for centuries. As we examine how the past 10 years have affected our military, the Joint Force faces three points of transition which will test our leadership and shape our future: the transition from two large land wars to a complex security environment with many challenges, the transition from abundant to constrained resources, and, as our active force shrinks in size, the transition of many service members and families into civilian life.
In October, I published my Letter to the Joint Force, which outlined four focus areas as we face the future.
These focus areas will guide us through the transitions:
- Achieving our national objectives in our current conflicts
- Developing a Joint Force for 2020
- Recommitting ourselves to the Profession of Arms
- Keeping faith with the Military Family
As a follow up, I’ve just released my Strategic Direction to the Joint Force. This document goes into greater detail of the key efforts in each of our focus areas. Read these with a critical eye and ask yourself what you can do to contribute to these efforts and make them better.
I invite you to comment here on my blog, my Facebook page or on Twitter. Share your thoughts with me on how we can improve the Strategic Direction and together address the needs of our future.
General Martin E. Dempsey Chairman
Joint Chiefs of Staff
