Joint Chiefs Chairman to speak at NU graduation

General Martin E. Dempsey, the 18^th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been chosen to deliver the commencement speech at graduation exercises on Sunday, May 13.

As the highest ranking military officer in the country, Dempsey serves as the principal military adviser to the President, the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council.

Formerly the Army's 37^th Chief of Staff, Dempsey is a highly decorated military officer with a Master's Degree in English from Duke University who was once assigned to the English Department at the US Military Academy at West Point, his alma mater.

Norwich University officials said they are honored to welcome Dempsey, who will address both military and civilian students in the ceremony that marks their transition from students to professionals serving their country both on the battlefield and in business, government and their local communities.

 Dempsey's visit to Norwich is notable for its historical significance. The University was founded in 1819 by fellow West Point alum and former West Point Superintendent US Army Captain Alden Partridge upon the then-radical principle of educating citizen soldiers.

 That concept is a national institution today. In the past 10 years of The Global War on Terror, the all-volunteer US military has relied heavily upon Reserve and Guard units, otherwise known as citizen soldiers.

Partridge's Norwich model became the blueprint for the federal government to duplicate military training at land grant universities across the country in what we now know as the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC).

At the Sunday commencement, Dempsey will address approximately 400 graduating Norwich students and their families at 10:30 a.m. in the Shapiro Field House. Of the 400 graduating students, approximately half are civilian and half are graduating from the Corps of Cadets.

Approximately 115 students will have commissioned into the US Armed Services through ROTC the day before.