JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. — Army Gen. Mark Milley delivered a full-throated protection of democracy and not-so-subtle swipes at former President Donald Trump throughout a packed ceremony on Friday as he closed out his 4, usually tumultuous years as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers.
Below cloudy skies at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Corridor, Milley by no means talked about the previous president by identify. However he virtually shouted on two totally different events that the U.S. army swears to guard the Structure “in opposition to ALL enemies, overseas AND home.”
“We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” he mentioned. “We don’t take an oath to a person. We take an oath to the Structure, and we take an oath to the concept is America, and we’re prepared to die to guard it.”
Milley is retiring after greater than 4 many years of army service, together with a number of fight deployments and two usually turbulent years as Joint Chiefs chairman underneath Trump. And it was these years, and the battles he fought in opposition to Trump, that fashioned a lot of the underpinning of his farewell deal with, and have been sprinkled all through different speeches within the ceremony.
As chairman, Milley pushed again in opposition to a bunch of Trump’s plans, together with calls for to tug all troops out of Iraq and Syria and his need to place active-duty troops on Washington’s streets to counter racial protests. A number of books have described Milley’s deep considerations about Trump’s health as commander in chief and his worries that Trump would attempt to use the army to assist block President Joe Biden’s election.
Only a week in the past, Trump railed in opposition to Milley in a submit on Reality Social, condemning him as a treasonous, “Woke prepare wreck” whose actions have been “so egregious that, in occasions passed by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” The submit, which some interpreted as a menace, has prompted Milley to make sure his household has sufficient safety.
Biden, who spoke on the ceremony, continued the democracy theme, praising Milley’s staunch protection of the Structure, which “has all the time been Mark’s North Star.” And he mentioned the final has been a gradual hand guiding the army throughout one of the crucial complicated nationwide safety environments.
The farewell tribute on the bottom simply outdoors Washington was each rousing and somber, with marching bands, troop salutes and speeches. Milley’s four-year time period as chairman ends at midnight Saturday, and Air Drive Gen. CQ Brown takes over Sunday. Milley is retiring. after practically 44 years of service.
Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin recalled Milley as a battle buddy, noting with a smile that he was all the time “desperate to get into the battle. And I’ve seen that firsthand over our lengthy historical past of working collectively, together with one time when he obtained me blown up. Actually.”
When Austin was commanding the tenth Mountain Division through the Iraq Struggle he visited Milley, one among his brigade commanders, who prompt they go to the hospital to see a wounded service member.
“So we took Route Irish in Baghdad, which was often known as probably the most harmful highway on the planet. And we promptly obtained hit by an IED,” Austin informed the group. “Afterwards, I requested, ‘Hey basic, has this occurred to you earlier than?’ And Mark mentioned, ‘Oh sure sir — I’ve been blown up about 5 occasions now.’”
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Baldor reported from Washington.
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