by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Adm. James Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and Commander of the U.S. European Command, spoke Monday at the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Military Appreciation Luncheon.
Stavridis, 55, is a native of South Florida. He is a 1976 distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Since then, he has served worldwide.
A surface warfare officer, Stavridis commanded the Destroyer USS Barry from 1993-95, completing UN/NATO deployments to Haiti, Bosnia and the Arabian Gulf.
In 1998, he commanded Destroyer Squadron 21 and deployed to the Arabian Gulf.
From 2002-04, he commanded Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, conducting combat operations in the Arabian Gulf to support Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.
From 2006-09, Stavridis commanded U.S. Southern Command in Miami, focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean.
He assumed his current duties in the summer of 2009.
Stavridis responded this week to questions from the Daily Record.
How do you describe the progress made by the U.S. military in the War on Terror?
Not only in the regions of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. military forces and our allies are also helping defeat terrorists in the jungles of the southern Philippines, the Horn of Africa, and most recently in Yemen.
Counterinsurgency campaigns are often long and difficult. Progress can be hard to measure and the enemy may appear to have many advantages.
However, by focusing on efforts to secure the safety and support of the local populace, and through a concerted effort to truly bring to bear all the elements of our national power through a comprehensive approach, we can bring stability to regions that terrorists seek to exploit.
If you could have the resources you believe are needed to win the War on Terror, what would you ask for?
What we need above all is the continued support of our Allied nations and partners, and determined patience of our populations for a protracted campaign against this extremist ideology.
Unlike conventional warfare in the past, this will take a comprehensive approach involving military and civilian capabilities, private and public, to change the conditions that contribute to the terrorism that we face.
For NATO, that means complementary operations with the European Union and more intensely working with our partners for peace as well as with Mediterranean Dialogue Countries and other like-minded nations from around the globe like Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand.
Our combined and complementary efforts in countering piracy off the Horn of Africa serve as a great example and a veritable laboratory for collaboration in the 21st century. It also underscores the fact that NATO does not always have to be in the lead. NATO can serve valuable supporting roles to others as well.
NATO’s next major role is to seek, develop, and galvanize relationships with nonmilitary and nongovernmental enterprises, both private and public, on the basis of common purpose.
Does the U.S. military have the personnel needed today to protect the country and its areas of coverage?
Broadly speaking, yes. There is a constant flow of assessments and there is a process in place to request additional resources. The Department of Defense uses a global force management process that among other things was designed to prioritize requirements, identify the most appropriate forces to meet combatant command requirements and provide predictability. The global force management process provides predictability and the time necessary to consider a full range of options for meeting the combatant commander requirements.
What areas of the world need the most military and intelligence attention to avoid conflict?
Actually, I would look at this from the comprehensive approach because it is not just through military means that we can create conditions of stability that ensure our security interests.
Globalization in its many forms and its myriad resultant perturbations is what drives our need to work together more closely than ever before. For all its benefits, globalization does come with some challenges. By its very nature, it depends on relationships and the interdependence of many stakeholders.
How would you describe the U.S. military’s relationships with its allies?
NATO has served as a bulwark of our security and will continue to be a guarantor of the peace. Its comprehensive security and collective well-being at home and abroad, on shore and at sea, in the air, or in the stormy cyber realm depends on all the 28 members of the alliance, our non-NATO partners, and more and more, upon our relationships with public and private enterprises.
By working together and pulling at all levers of national and international power with a common purpose as well as toward our common goals, the long road to security and prosperity, though still challenging, does not seem so long and lonely after all.
The current development of a new strategic concept and its subsequent adoption as NATO’s path forward is an opportunity to ensure that the Alliance stays fresh and is better understood by its constituents, by its friends and partners, and by those who would seek to fracture the peace.
In your 34 years of service, what have been your most memorable assignments?
My current job as commander of NATO Operations, also known by its historical title as Supreme Allied Commander, Europe – a job held originally by Gen. Eisenhower at the end of World War II – is at the top of the list. I also loved my previous job as Commander of U.S. Southern Command, essentially in charge of all U.S. military-to-military contact and U.S. forces in the Caribbean and Latin America. My HQ was in Miami, so it was nice to be close to home. Finally, I deeply enjoyed my first seagoing command of the Aegis destroyer USS Barry – you can read about that one in a short memoir I wrote called, “Destroyer Captain.”
Do citizens fully understand the dangers faced by military personnel, not only the physical but the psychological?
I think it’s difficult for someone who has not been in the conflict environment to understand the scope and depth of the physical and psychological impact on our service members. It varies from individual to individual.
We have established programs for our service members that develop holistic fitness in multiple dimensions for a variety of challenges. The programs develop the ‘whole person’ by giving the same emphasis to psychological, emotional and mental strength that is often given to physical strength. This enables service members and family members to more easily manage various physical and psychological challenges in their personal and professional lives.
What is your comment on the worldwide injunction stopping enforcement of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, suspending the 17-year-old ban on openly gay U.S. troops?
A high-level working group within the Department of Defense is reviewing issues associated with repeal of the law, should a repeal occur.
The working group is studying how to implement a repeal of the law, not whether the law should be repealed. The group will professionally, thoroughly and dispassionately examine all aspects of properly implementing a repeal of the policy. Special attention will be paid to minimizing disruption and polarization within the ranks, especially those globally deployed in support of operations.
The process will be fair, objective, comprehensive and dispassionate. The working group will conduct a thorough examination of all regulations and policies, and will look at the potential impact of repealing DADT on military effectiveness, unit cohesion and other related issues.
The overall review process will be completed by Dec. 1. Treating service members with dignity and respect is a Department of Defense standard and expectation.
Do you believe Jacksonville, specifically Mayport Naval Station, should be the home port of a nuclear carrier, and why or why not?
The Chief of Naval Operations is the officer in charge of all ship assignments.
Where do you plan to retire (and when) and why that choice of location?
I do love my native state of Florida, and I will certainly be looking there initially. And I enjoy the beautiful beaches of the ‘First Coast’ a great deal. I hope to serve a few more years in uniform, so stay tuned.
What are the three top books and three top movies that, in your opinion, best depict the military?
I’ll stick with books, and give you three from land operations and three from the sea.
All six books that give a fascinating and true picture of military life are:
“Gates of Fire,” by Stephen Pressfield, about the Greek soldiers fighting invading Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae.
“Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes, about a Marine Second Lieutenant fighting in Vietnam in 1968.
“One Bullet Away” by Nathaniel Fick, about a Marine junior officer leading his men in combat in Iraq.
While separated by time, all three give an accurate and harrowing picture of life on the battlefield.
From the naval perspective, (these) are all very accurate depictions of life at sea:
“The Ship,” by C.S. Forester, about a destroyer in the Mediterranean in World War II.
“100 Days” about the British Force that retook the Falklands in the 1980s.
“Master and Commander,” by Patrick O’Brian, about the British Royal Navy in the age of sail.
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