West Point graduates urged to tackle change
Joint Chiefs chairman delivers commencement
WEST POINT, N.Y. — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff urged graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy this weekend to “embrace the constant changes” facing the military as the best route to success.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, said armies that are slow to adapt to changes often find themselves on the wrong side of history.
He urged the almost 950 West Point cadets who were commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army during the ceremony to challenge themselves to be the kind of leaders who continually thinks about change, especially in a world where “the pace of change and the speed of war has greatly accelerated.”
His remarks came at a ceremony that featured among its graduates the first black woman to lead the Long Gray Line.
Simone Askew, of Fairfax, Virginia, last year assumed duties as first captain of the 4,400-member Corps of Cadets, the highest position in the cadet chain of command.
Dunford recalled that leaders on both sides in World War I were slow to grasp the significance of emerging technologies, resulting in the deaths of many soldiers.
Throughout history, he said, most changes occur only “after significant failure.”
An exception came in the years before the Vietnam War when men who had graduated from West Point considered how the helicopter might be deployed to enhance mobility on the battlefield.
“They fundamentally changed Army maneuvers, and their ideas remain relevant today,” Dunford said.