Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, shakes hands with his successor, Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., as President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and other dignitaries applaud during Dempsey's farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, shakes hands with his successor, Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., as President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and other dignitaries applaud during Dempsey's farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey walks with family members during his retirement ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey with some of his grandchildren during his farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, during his farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey dances with his wife, Deanie, during his farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talks with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter during Gen. Martin Dempsey's farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. salutes as Marines march past during a farewell ceremony for Dunford's predecessor as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey shakes hands with his successor, Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., during Dempsey's farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
President Barack Obama leads the applause during the farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, right foreground, at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
President Barack Obama speaks during the farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey atJoint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey atJoint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
President Barack Obama shakes hands with retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey during Dempsey's farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, during his farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, during his farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey atJoint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
President Barack Obama salutes during the farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The farewell ceremony for retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Sept. 25, 2015. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey was hailed Friday as “a singular leader” who led the military with a steady hand during unsteady times.
In an emotional, family-filled ceremony, Dempsey was at once funny and overwhelmed, noting that he felt very much on the last day of his 41-year career as he felt on his first.
Back then, as now, “I was a little nervous. I was humbled to wear the uniform of an Army officer ... and I was in love with a girl named Deanie,” Dempsey said, choking up.
As he spoke, Dempsey’s wife, Deanie, his high school sweetheart, wiped her eyes and held one of their nine grandchildren close.
At the full honors military retirement ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., on Friday, President Barack Obama said Dempsey’s “wisdom, his vision and his character have helped lead the greatest fighting force the world has ever known. I am extraordinarily grateful to have had him by my side.”
Dempsey’s son, Army Maj. Chris Dempsey, read out his father’s retirement orders. All three of Dempsey’s children served in the Army.
“Attention to orders. Headquarters Department of the Army Order Number 110-02,” Chris Dempsey said, his voice starting to break. “The following general officer is retired. Dempsey, Martin E. Rank of General.”
His son then walked away from the microphone, wiping away tears.
The retiring general was introduced as “my friend General Dempsey” by Lizzie Yaggy, a young girl he’s gotten to know through his regular appearances at the military’s Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors children’s camps. Lizzie, according to a Defense Department news release, first met Dempsey when she was 4, after she had lost her father, and asked Dempsey, “Is my Daddy an angel?”
Dempsey, taken aback, decided to start singing to the kids, and a tradition was born. The programs offer kids who have lost a family member to war the chance to bond with other children in similar situations.
“I think my [United States Military Academy at West Point class of 1974] classmates probably had a few side bets going” on when he would get emotional, Dempsey said. They didn’t have to wait long.
While he cried multiple times, he got a few zingers in too.
Turning to the president, he noted, “I also want to thank the 22nd, the 23rd, the 24th and the 25th Secretaries of Defense with whom I’ve served over the last five years,” adding wryly, “seriously?”
“I’m almost out of water to choke back emotion,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey’s last decade of service was dominated by Iraq. He assumed command of the then-Germany-based 1st Armored Division in Baghdad in 2003. He commanded the 1AD in Iraq for 14 months as the U.S. focused on reconstruction efforts to improve the countries water, sewage and electrical systems. Dempsey’s term, however, was also marked by deteriorating stability and the earliest indications of the insurgency to follow.
Dempsey returned to Iraq in 2005 to serve for two years as commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, assigned with the responsibility of training and equipping Iraq’s security forces. He served as the deputy and then acting commander of U.S. Central Command, and spent the last four years of his military career as the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving through the December 2011 drawdown of troops in Iraq, only to see U.S. forces sent back there in 2014.
Dempsey is succeeded by U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, who stepped down this week from his role as Commandant of the Marine Corps to become the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In his career, Dempsey was known for his expertise on the complex security situation in the Middle East, and for his direct and sometimes blunt strategic assessments.
“In the Situation Room, all listened attentively when Marty offered his advice from the military leadership,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Friday.
Dempsey’s bluntness sometimes led him off-script; generating unwanted headlines at congressional hearings and press briefings. Earlier this year he ended up calling a Gold Star mother, Debbie Lee, to apologize after a much-publicized remark made to the press that the fall of Ramadi, Iraq, “won’t be the end of the campaign.” The remarks outraged Lee and others, who understood them to mean that the city where their military sons died did not have strategic value.
Dempsey was also known for the deep impact the loss of soldiers had on his own life. He kept a wooden box engraved “Make it Matter” on his desk, inside are 132 cards – one for every soldier who died under his command in Iraq.
“Over the years, no one has attended more memorials, wakes, or weddings,” Carter said. “For the Dempseys, there are truly no strangers in our military family, to quote Yeats yet again: “There are only friends they haven’t met.”
In a final tribute to their 41 years of service, the military feted Dempsey and his family with a musical tribute to their life. Dempsey and wife Deanie shared one last dance, as the band feted them with their wedding song, “Close to You.”
True to tradition, Dempsey then picked up the microphone, leading the second-to-last song, the Irish Ballad, “The Parting Glass.”
“Goodbye and joy be to you all,” Dempsey sang before walking into the arms of his grandchildren and Deanie. The now retired grandparents, hands full of their nine young grandkids, walked together off the field with bagpipes and the final goodbye song, “I’m going to Carolina.”
copp.tara@stripes.com Twitter: @TaraCopp
