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| General Martin E.Dempsey |
Washington : Gen. Martin E. Dempsey has been nominated by President Obama as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Memorial Day, the holiday that honors the nation’s war dead. Dempsey, who was sworn in as Army chief of staff just last month, replaces Adm. Mike Mullen, who is retiring when his term ends Sept. 30.
The president also nominated Adm. James “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr. as Dempsey’s vice chairman and picked Gen. Ray Odierno to take over as Army chief of staff.
Obama called Dempsey “one of our nation’s most respected and combat-tested generals.”
Dempsey commanded 20,000 troops during two tours in Iraq, tamping down an uprising of loyalists to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in 2004.
