By Claudette Roulo
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 6, 2015 – Focusing on the difficulties
that lie ahead of the Defense Department is easy, but now is also the time to
embrace opportunity, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said today.
“Being back, I’m reminded how easy it is in Washington --
and in this building -- to focus solely on our challenges,” Carter said. “And
it is indeed a turbulent, rough world out there. But as a nation and as a
department, this is also a moment to continue to shine the beacon of American
leadership and to seize the many bright opportunities in front of us.”
Carter was speaking at his ceremonial swearing in as the
25th secretary of defense, an event hosted by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey at the Pentagon.
"As we know from Secretary Carter's long experience in
the department, he is the right person to lead the Department of Defense at
this point in our history -- not just for what he's done, but in particular for
how he's done it,” Dempsey said.
“Secretary Carter's known for bringing judgment and candor
to decisions, and for explaining those decisions in clear and honest language.
This is something those of us in the armed forces very much appreciate,” the
general noted.
Besides Dempsey, speakers included William J. Perry, the
19th defense secretary, and Justice Elena Kagan, who swore Carter in at the
ceremony.
"Since 1947, there have been 24 people sworn in as the
secretary of defense. None of them, none of them better qualified for this job
than Ash Carter. Qualified by intellect, by temperament and by
experience," Perry said before Carter was sworn in.
Carter served under Perry during the Clinton administration,
and today called him “the model of a modern secretary of defense.”
“Our nation and the world are safer because of your
leadership and intellect -- and also because of your civility,” Carter said of
Perry.
Kagan said of Carter that, “If you walk around this town and
talk to people, what everybody says is … he is the perfect man for this job,
the consummate public servant, the person who by virtue of his experience and
his judgment and his good sense and his brilliance will be able to deal with
the challenges that this important office has.”
Highest Honor
It is the highest honor to serve as America's 25th secretary
of defense, Carter said.
“The men and women of this department will not only continue
to protect our country, but also ensure we leave a more peaceful, prosperous
and promising world to our children to live their lives, raise their families,
dream their dreams,” he said.
American service members, DoD civilian employees and
contractors are serving at home and abroad in support of U.S. national security
interests, the secretary said.
“We are standing with our friends and allies against
savagery in the Middle East,” Carter said. “In the Asia-Pacific, where new
powers rise and old tensions still simmer and where half of humanity resides,
we are standing up for a continuation of a decades-long miracle of development
and progress underwritten by the United States.
“And in cyberspace,” he added, “we are standing with those
who create and innovate against those who seek to steal, destroy and exploit.”
Think Outside the ‘Five-sided Box’
With budgets tightening and technology and globalization
revolutionizing how the world works, the Pentagon has an opportunity to open
itself to new ways of operating, recruiting, buying, innovating and much more,
the secretary said.
“America is home to the world’s most dynamic businesses and
universities. We have to think outside this five-sided box and be open to their
best practices, ideas and technologies,” he said.
“… In realizing all these opportunities, previous
generations and my recent predecessors … have blessed us with a remarkable
inheritance: a more secure country, a stronger institution, and the world’s
greatest military,” Carter said.
This generation owes the same legacy to those who come after
it, the defense secretary said, something he will remember every day he is in
office.
“Just as I wake up every day committed to putting in a day
of service worthy of our extraordinary men and women in uniform,” he added.
Carter said his greatest obligations as defense secretary
will be to help the commander in chief make wise and caring decisions about
sending troops into harm’s way, to ensure troops have what they need to fight
and win, and to ensure the welfare and dignity of service members and their
families.
“Thank you for all that you do,” the defense secretary said
to service members in the audience. “Thank you for the trust that you place in
me. I will do my best to live up to it.”
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