By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Oct. 5, 2014 – The chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff lauded wounded warriors, their families and sponsors
yesterday for their participation in the 2014 Warrior Games competition.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey praised this year’s competitors
during the final live broadcast of DoD News’ “Adaptive Warrior,” just before
the Air Force-Navy football game at the Air Force Academy’s Falcon Stadium.
“I’m looking out at that crowd of the warriors and their
families and the support agencies, and you know, it’s not a cliché to say how
proud we are of them,” he said.
“We’re humbled by the recognition of their sacrifices,”
Dempsey said, “[and] what they’ve done to overcome some of the wounds that they
suffered.”
Public-private partnership
The chairman said the Warrior Games are a “great example of
some of public-private sponsorship or partnership.”
Dempsey said he was happy to represent the Joint Chiefs of
Staff and praised the U.S. Olympic Committee, BP and Deloitte for their support
and sponsorship of the Warrior Games.
“I think that’s what it’s going to take to get us through
our uncertain and unpredictable [fiscal] future,” he said.
Dempsey also explained the benefit of military adaptive
sport programs.
“One of the things that, maybe, the American people are not
as familiar with as we are,” he said, “is … [that] our work on prosthetics,
traumatic brain injury, medical evacuation has actually had a beneficial
effect, not just for our servicemen and women, and their families, the American
people at large.”
Wartime medical advances
Dempsey said he hopes to maintain the advances in the
military health system developed over a decade-plus of war.
“I think we need to keep that even, hopefully, as conflicts
diminish and we’re not suffering so many wounds,” he said, “we can make sure
we’re don’t lose those skill sets because at some point we’ll need them.”
Dempsey reaffirmed the Joint Staff’s commitment to supporting
programs that benefit America’s wounded service members and their families,
such as the Warrior Games.
“As I said, I represent the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I
think what you can count on from us is continued support for these kinds of
programs,” he said.
“When we ask young men and women to go into harm’s way,”
Dempsey said, “and we ask their families to support us, then we owe them
support for life.”
“That’s our commitment to you,” the chairman said. “I want
to thank, again, those service organizations and corporations who have helped
us make these games a reality.”
We’re proud not only of the athletes and their families, but
the sponsors as well, Dempsey added.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment