GENERAL MARTIN DEMPSEY: Thanks for that very warm welcome. Deanie and I always feel as though we’re coming home when we return here to West Point.

A couple of thoughts as I begin. First, based on the weather, I personally think, Supe, that in future years we maybe ought to celebrate 400th night. [laughter.] Might have a little better chance of some weather that wouldn’t have all of these beautiful young ladies freezing as they wander into the hall here.

I do want to thank you, the Class of 2013 and the Superintendant and the staff and faculty for inviting us up here today.

Supe, you look pretty good for just having gotten off the plane from Thailand. So if you are wondering – those of you that aspire to be general officers someday – you have to have a certain stamina and you need to look like him when you’re his age.

Ted Martin as Comm and Stephanie it’s good to see you guys. I’m glad to see that Comm is no longer playing pirate running around the halls. [laughter]

Tim Trainor and Donna, where are you? And of course we had a chance to chat with the class president, Tim Berry, and the other folks assembled at the table here.

So look, people often ask me, “What’s it like to be the Chairman?” I think that when I was a cadet – it’s right there on the picture – I asked the 7th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that very question when I was presenting him with a yearbook from the Class of ’74 in his office in the Pentagon.

People have often asked me, “What are you pointing to in the picture?” And I’ve said, “Well, I was actually pointing at my picture and saying look, I’m going to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs” [laughter]—by the way, I didn’t do that. But with the incredulous look of the cadet to my right in the picture, I knew he was thinking, “Dude, you are not going to say that to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.” [laughter]

But I actually treasure that picture and I have a similar picture of presenting a yearbook to Creighton Abrams, who was I think one of our best Chiefs of Staff of the Army, passed away in late 1973 right after we had been down to see him with the yearbook.

So when people ask what it’s like to be the Chairman now, I say, well, it’s pretty good actually, it’s not bad. Four stars, I’ve got a nice house overlooking Washington DC, I’ve got a driver, I’ve got an airplane. Every once in a while I’ll see on my calendar something really extraordinary. Two weeks ago, I was reviewing my calendar for the day and I noticed that I had an office call with Angelina Jolie. [chuckles] I’m not making that up. But I had the same reaction when I saw the calendar, I chuckled and said, “Who the heck put Angelina Jolie’s name on my calendar?” I said, “I suppose she’s coming in for acting advice or something.” But it was actually a serious visit because as you know she’s a real humanitarian and she was on her way to Afghanistan and Pakistan and wanted to pass through the staff and get some insights.

So we do get some extraordinary things—things that could make you forget that at the end of the day, you’re just you. So put up the next picture.

I do have, however, my high school sweetheart, Deanie—this is a picture, by the way, I think it was probably Plebe Parent Weekend. [inaudible] I knew I was going to get corrected, what was it? [inaudible] Oh, I was graduating? [laughter]. I knew it was some event or another. By the way, make no mistake about it, those of you that are laughing right now, you will do exactly the same thing thirty seven years from now.

But Deanie is my wife of thirty six years now and whenever I get thinking too much of myself, she’ll bring me back down to earth pretty quick.

I’ll tell you a story about when I was named Chairman, I was serving at the time as Chief of Staff of the Army and I had about a two week gap between being the Chief and becoming the Chairman. So Deanie and I drove up very near here actually, over in Greenwood Lake and Goshen, New York—that’s where we grew up, went to high school together.

As we were driving around, we reached a point where we needed to put some gas in the car so I pulled into the gas station. Now remember we are high school sweethearts. So we pull into the gas station and the attendant comes out and it turns out to be a guy that Deanie had dated sort of competitively with me back in high school. And his name was Bobby. Obviously it was great to see him and we were very friendly. We got back in the car and I was sort of feeling pretty good about things [laughter] and I said to Deanie probably with a little smirk on my face, “You’re probably feeling pretty good about the decision you made.” [laughter] And she looked me dead in the eye and she said, “Listen pal, if I had married Bobby, he’d be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and you’d have been pumping gas. [laughter] Sad but true. [laughter]

I know that many of you have escorts here tonight, dates as we used to call them back in the day, and perhaps some future spouses among you. Thanks for being here with your cadets. You all look extraordinary.

Moms and dads and grandparents, you look great too.

Staff and faculty, I never miss an opportunity to thank you for what you do for this institution, for our Army, for our Nation, and for these young men and women you are preparing to go out into a world that is eager for their leadership.

So importantly for all of you that I just mentioned, thanks for raising these fine men and women and for instilling in them a desire to serve and a willingness to sacrifice and sometimes to suffer—and I’m not just talking about writing Sosh papers. [laughter]

Those of you that raised these young men and women handed them over to West Point during a time of two wars. And you said to them, “Here, teach my children how to be part of the Profession of Arms. Teach them how to be good leaders of soldiers.”

It’s a brave thing you’ve done, not just those of you serving, but those of you who support who serve. Deanie and I have done that three times with our children, twice here at West Point. So we know the feeling very well. It’s pride. It’s fear. It’s the joy of knowing you can at some point finally regain control of the cell phone bill, the remote control for the television, the laundry, at least until they come home for a visit.

So as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as a parent, I’d like to ask anyone here who is a family member of the Class of 2013 to please stand. Let’s give them a round of applause. [applause] Thanks.

Tonight is really about the Class of 2013, how far you’ve come and the 500 days until you finally get to break free and put West Point in the rear view mirror.

As brave as it was for your parents to drop you off on R day, your choice to come to West Point speaks of your courage too. It speaks of your character and your dedication as individuals and now as a class.

You came of age in a world where a type of evil you weren’t even old enough to understand invaded our shores and our living rooms. You watched your parents cry over images of burning towers and in some cases over the graves of lost friends.

You grew up with terrorism, heard some of the cynicism maybe, and heard of heroism as well, during two wars that have now almost become accepted features of your childhood. Yet each of you made a decision that America was both good and worthy of your sacrifice. And so it is.

And you arrived at West Point in June of 2009 ready to give it all.

That’s what it means to be a member of the Class of 2013.

In spite of changing attitudes and changing missions, you have kept faith with the obligation of free men and women to defend the free world. Ready as your class motto says to “defend the dream.” Class of 2013, please stand so we can give you a round of applause. [applause]

Put up the next image for me please. One of the things that’s great about coming back to West Point is that I’m always reminded of the things I didn’t appreciate when I was a cadet. Places like this, Thayer Monument. Now you’ve walked by it a thousand times but have you ever stopped there in an evening when no one else is around? Now I know the answer to that. I wouldn’t want to be caught hanging next to the Commandant’s quarters in the middle of the night either.

Before you graduate, go there when no one else is around, stand in front of Thayer and look up. You’ll see strength, courage, conviction, soldierly carriage—all of that tempered with some extraordinary kindness.

Then look back over your shoulder toward the Plain. Put your hand on the stone and close your eyes. You’ll hear the sounds. You’ll sense both the excitement and the apprehension. You’ll feel the pride of that thing called the Long Grey Line that has gone before you. And you’ll remind yourself why you’re here. I mean why you’re really here, why you wear this uniform. This is a powerful place. Give it a try.

Put up the next image. This is another powerful place. Some of you look a little confused maybe. That’s not West Point and you’re not missing some monument out there. [laughter] But it is an extraordinary monument that at some time in your professional life, you should ensure you visit.

It’s at Antietam. It’s a monument to the Private Soldier. The locals call it “Old Simon.” Exactly 150 years ago in 1862, the fate of the Republic was hanging in the balance and we fought a battle at Antietam. 23,000 casualties in a single day. The bloodiest day in American military history and it was fought on a space not much larger than the Plain.

At Old Simon’s base, there are a few simple words that speak to the men and women who now he guards and share that battlefield with him. And those words are these, “Not for themselves, but for their country.”

Your job in the Profession of Arms will always be challenging, it will often be dangerous, and it will sometimes be riddled with uncertainty.

But you’ve known that since the last night of Beast before the march back when it started raining at 10pm and didn’t stop until three in the morning. And at Camp Buckner in land navigation training when they took the roads off of the maps. You know when I heard that I said to myself, “Seriously? They took the roads off of the maps? whose idea was that anyway?” But you got through it.

Somebody’s got to be good at what we do in our profession. General Huntoon is. Sergeant Major Burnett is. I am. But you have to be. We’re good at it but we’re near the end of our term. You have to be good at it. And this is where you get ready. Right here. And here’s why you have to be good at it. Put up the next image.

You’ve all heard that warfare is changing, technology is taking over, the Army is a thing of the past. But you know, the most sophisticated piece of warfighting equipment in this picture is this squad leader and he hasn’t changed all that much really since the days of the Roman legions. Politics are going to change, technologies will change, the enemy will change, but that squad leader won’t. And you as his leader can’t.

What the Profession of Arms requires of us first and foremost is trust. So let me speak to that picture for a second and ask you to emblazon it in your memory.

That squad leader is obviously serving in Afghanistan. He is operating because he trusts that that man or woman to his right flank, that rifleman, is protecting him while he does his job. And similarly, that rifleman who is oriented outward is confident and trusts that the squad leader has his back.

It doesn’t get any more fundamental than trust. And trust is built on confidence in each other. And confidence comes from recognizing the competence, the character, the quality of each of us. You’ve got to have it.

The other thing about that picture is that squad leader—you can see in his eyes if you can see the picture clearly enough, the conflicting emotions that mark a battlefield—courage and fear, confidence and uncertainty. He’s on the radio and he’s calling for something. It could be close air support, could be medevac, could be additional guidance. I don’t know what it is. But whatever it is, you know that he’s going to get it and he knows that he’s going to get it. Because what makes us unique on the face of the earth is that as a military if you need something, we’re going to get it for you. You can trust in that.

So that whole picture is an image of trust and trust is the very foundation of our profession. And if you’re not living up to earning your part of that equation, you’re not living up to being a member of the profession.

And let me say one more thing about the image. He’s wearing a wedding band and that solider trusts that his spouse thousands of miles away in some small town in USA or on some post, camp, or station—he trusts that he can do his job knowing that someone is looking after his family as well.

That’s what this profession is all about. It will always be about that no matter how you get to the battlefield, whether you walk to it or drive to it or you jump into it, that’s the essence of our profession—trust. And you have time to understand that here in the 500 days remaining to you.

Our nation gives its sons and daughters to you and it commits us to defending the nation and its interests. And it expects us to be successful. These are the people who make it successful and you are the people who will lead them and make all of us successful. Your job will be to lead them, that’s what you signed up for. Are you ready?

I remember when I sat where you are there were three things that came to across my mind from time to time, not all the time. But on occasion when I would think about what would lie ahead, I wondered about these three things. What will the environment be, what will the threats be, what’s the future going to look like? Secondly, can I make a difference in it? And third, what will those who do what I ask them to do expect of me?

Now I expect that you have similar thoughts and the closer you get to graduation, the more those thoughts will become prominent. Let them become prominent. But here’s what you need to know from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, you’re going to do fine. You’re going to even do better than fine. You’re going to be extraordinary and I trust you.

So if this profession is a compact between the leader and the led, what I’m telling you is that as the senior military officer in the United States of America, I trust you, the Class of 2013, to take care of this nation when your turn comes.

Let me say something about your future. And I’ll start by telling you, you have no idea anymore than any of us do about what’s going to happen in it.

You’ve already seen big changes even here at the Academy and in our Army. You’re the first to experience the new branching system. You came here expecting to go to Iraq or Afghanistan or potentially to both. And now you know you may have to prove your mettle someplace else and in some other way.

Some of you have goals and dreams you’ve had your whole life, some of you have probably wanted to be a cadet and an officer your whole lives, and you’re going to achieve those goals. Others of you have goals and dreams you’ve had your whole life and you’re not even going to come close—life is what happens when you’re making other plans. Or life will happen and some of you will have to divert and develop a whole new set of goals and a whole new set of dreams and even there, I’m confident you’ll exceed beyond your wildest expectations.

The point is that the people in that picture in their lives have made a difference and are making a difference. Never mind that West Point was ranked #1 by Forbes when your class entered and by that by the end of your first year, it had sunk to #4. [laughter] Never mind that your class reportedly has the lowest GPA of all four classes. [laughter] Never mind any of that. The Dean is going to kill me for saying that. [laughter] Don’t worry about making a difference. You will.

500 days from now when you smoke cigars, you chest bump with the President, you do a flip off the stage and embarrass the hell out of your parents on national television, [laughter] you’re going to come out and work with the rest of us. Let me tell you what we expect and leave you with these few final words.

Like the Long Grey Line that’s gone before you, we expect – actually, we demand – that you be leaders of character for our nation. We expect you to appreciate that leadership is a gift. It’s given by those who follow and you have to be worthy of it. The men and women you are going to be responsible for are the greatest people on the face of the earth. They really are the strength of our nation. That’s not just a phrase. Make sure you’re getting ready to lead them. If you’re not, rededicate yourself to that effort. Try your leadership skills here. Because here if you fail, you learn and you move on and then try again. You have 500 days left.

Thank you for the life you’ve chosen. Thank you for being good enough to be here. Make sure you’re good enough to graduate—not for yourselves, but for your country.

And take care of yourselves. I’ll see you out there.

Go Army!