Speech

by General James L. Jones at the SACEUR change
of command ceremony — SHAPE

JAMES L. JONES (Departing SACEUR): Secretary General, thank you so very kindly for these very, very thoughtful and most generous words.

I stand before you today, ladies and gentlemen, as a very, very happy man. For 40 years I've looked at my calendar every day and noticed that the next day is always filled. This is a busy job that NATO and SHAPE has filled my calendar with many wonderful things to do each day. I looked at my calendar for tomorrow and I have nothing to do.

(LAUGHTER)

You, General Craddock, are not in such an enviable position, but you'll be rewarded many, many times over.

Secretary General and Jeannine, thank you so much for being here today. Excellencies, Chairman of the Military Committee, General Henault, thank you for being here. To all of the Chiefs of Defence, here present, thank you for your presence. Certainly to General and Mrs. Craddock, Linda, wonderful to share this special moment with you. Flag and general officers, and especially to our friends from this wonderful host country that we're all privileged to live in, from Belgium, from the town, from the region, thank you for being here, and welcome.

And to the ladies and gentlemen of the SHAPE family, it's wonderful to have you here today to share these moments, and I'd like to especially acknowledge my wife, Diane, whose presence and support has enabled me to do many of the things that I otherwise would not have been able to do, by her encouragement, her loyalty and her support. I thank you for that, Diane. Thank you so very much.

Two-thousand-three was a defining moment for me. I was asked by the Secretary of Defence, quite out of the blue, if I would, instead of retiring in June, if I would be willing to come over to NATO as the 14th Supreme Allied Commander for Allied Command Operations.

After a very, very brief discussion with my wife... I think I went home and I said, Diane, I'm going to ask you a question and I want your head to go like this...

(LAUGHTER)

And I helped her with that. I put both my hands on her head and made sure it went the right way. Ran back to the Pentagon and told the Secretary of Defence that I would be honoured.

I'm not sure the Secretary knew exactly how honoured, because as many of you know, I have had an appreciation for NATO that goes back to the very, very first days of NATO when I was a young child being brought up in France. I have always appreciated NATO. I've always understood what it meant in the 20th Century, and in the last four years I have not only appreciated it even more, I have come to love it.

I love this Alliance. I love what it stands for. I love for the inherent goodness of its people. I love the inherent example that the members of the Alliance set for the world over. And I think it's a wonderful, vibrant organisation that is alive. Alive and prosperous and going to make tremendous contributions, the likes of which perhaps none of us can even imagine in this 21st Century.

I believe these last four years have signalled a historical time for the Alliance, a defining moment, a time for all of us to consider where the Alliance is going and what its destiny might be. We call it transformation. If it's transformation then it's been a transformational adventure that I've been privileged to be a part for these four years.

Literally we're walking between two centuries. One that we understand, because it's in the past, and the second, the 21st Century, the one that is being defined and shaped before our very eyes, but we know that it is very, very, very different.

Nothing seems to be the same as it once was. And the Alliance is not the same as it once was. The Alliance is poised today, I believe, to make an indelible mark on this very new and challenging century.

We talk about it in many different ways. We refer to as asymmetric in nature and we have different definitions of what that means. We have different challenges and we have different threats that face us, that are not conventional, and someday there could be a conventional threat. But thank God for now there isn't.

But we do know, and we do have the sense that we're being tested collectively, and we do know that we have the will, and that the will to succeed is just as important as having the capability. Perhaps in the battle against the asymmetric threats will is the most important characteristic of how we will wind up.

Fortunately, NATO has both will and capability. But in these very, very different times military capability by itself, which seemed to have been enough in many struggles in the 20th Century, is not enough in the 21st Century. It is not enough to prevail in the asymmetric world. There are many other elements that must come together to formulate the path to success, and they must be made to work cohesively and consistently and with will.

The international influence and the national influence must come together to form a sense of perfect storm so that we can achieve our end states.

But make no mistake, the NATO soldier is the one who will lead the way and show us the path, so that we can be successful in all that we strive to do. The NATO soldier represents both our collective will and his capacity. The NATO soldier is represented by these magnificent soldiers behind us holding proudly their national colours and the emblem of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Allied Command Operations are, in fact, the future and they are the way to our collective success. And they are the guarantors of our collective security.

How they do their jobs in the future is almost as important as what kind of job we ask them to do. We ask a lot of them. They must be warriors, for in the worst situation you want to make sure that if you have to fight you can win. They must be diplomats. They must be people of great compassion. We ask them to take a hard helmet for one mission in one hour, and remove that helmet and put a softer one on so that you can take care of a child, so that you can help a family, so that you can tend to human needs with a compassionate touch that only a soldier who has been trained for the worst case can bring to the struggle.

In every NATO mission that I've seen  the soldiers are more than up to that task. They make us all proud. Whether they're in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Ethiopia, in the air and on the seas of the Mediterranean the people that come in contact with NATO soldiers should view that as a positive and highlight of their lives and experience.

And at the end of the day, when the mission is done, we want the people of the countries and the nations and the regions that we're struggling to help, to think of those uniforms as good things, as opportunities to do things that they never would have had an opportunity to do, to reach new heights, to experience security, to experience freedom, to experience the kindness and compassion of a family of 26 sovereign nations dedicated towards one cause with 20 partner nations also in support. And other non-NATO nations as well.

So for the past four years it's been a great honour to have been part of this expression of will of the Alliance. I'd like to thank the Secretary General and Jeannine for their leadership, for their friendship and for their commitment and for the passion they both bring the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The soldiers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are well led and well cared for by your inspiring leadership and commitment and for that, Secretary General, I thank you.

To the Chairman of the Military Committee and the Military Committee itself, despite rumours to the contrary, I am a fan of the Military Committee.

(LAUGHTER)

The Chairman of the Military Committee has always been there for me. He is my friend, and the Military Committee has always been there for SHAPE and we're particularly appreciative of their enormous contribution.

Here at SHAPE no one could have asked for two finer officers than the  DSACEUR and the Chief of Staff, General John Reith and General Rainer Schuwirth. Whatever we've achieved, whatever reputation SHAPE has, it goes to the leadership and work of those two fine officers. And I'd also like to salute their spouses as well, who bring such energy and such joy into all of our lives. John and Rainer, I will miss you, I thank you and I'm looking forward to staying in touch with you and your families in the days and years ahead. You're wonderful soldiers and you're great examples for all of your subordinates and for all of us.

For the Operational Commanders General Bach, Admiral Ulrich, Admiral Stufflebeam. General Bach, thank you very much for being here. I received your 150th letter yesterday. It was hand-delivered on a silver platter, as you requested. This is a little bit of a private joke. General Bach is a prolific letter writer, and my 150th letter was delivered at the end of the day yesterday. The response has to be staffed. It will be to you in about six months.

(LAUGHTER)

And that's because it has to go through the Military Committee. You understand.

(LAUGHTER)

To my country, to my nation, I thank you for letting me be a NATO officer. I don't know if you can fully appreciate how much that means, to be able to be, first to be selected and then to be assigned and then to be left to do the job as a NATO officer should do it, as a NATO commander should do it, is something I appreciate more than you'll ever know. It really makes a huge difference.

I'm very proud of the contribution the United States makes to the Alliance. But I was also to, for four years, celebrate with pride the contribution that everyone makes to the Alliance in those particularly difficult moments when our soldiers pay the ultimate price. And I know that each of us here today will find a moment to pause and reflect on that ultimate contribution.

And those contributions are why we cannot fail. Those contributions are why our will must be solid. Those, like a chain, we must all be joined together with clearness of purpose, clarity of vision and a steadfast drive towards our common end.

Today we have with us the 15th Supreme Allied Commander and his wife. A great soldier, well prepared for this assignment, very familiar with things European, has led a United States unified command of 32 countries.  Three days ago in Stuttgart I was able to hand to him the responsibility, in his American hat, of 92 countries in Europe and Africa, and I felt a big weight lift off my shoulders. And today I'm able to add another 26 and 20 partner nations, so another 46. John, sit up straight. It's not a heavy load. You will do well.

We're delighted... delighted to have this wonderful couple here at SHAPE, and John, I pledge to you and Linda that as with all former SACEURs you will find that it's a very tight club and we're there to support the man in the office. And as of the... in the next few minutes you will be that man and we will give you all of our energies, our support and our best wishes.

Permettez moi, s'il vous plaît d'adresser... de vous adresser en français. C'est la langue que j'ai connus le mieux quand j'étais un tout petit garçon en France à partir de 1947. Et il me semble que c'est raisonnable de terminer mon discours dans ma première langue.

Je vous souhaite tous une longue vie. Je vous souhaite tous beaucoup d'amitié. Je vous nous sommes... nous sommes profondément reconnaissants  pour l'accueil ici dans ce magnifique pays qui est la Belgique.

Nous reviendrons souvent. Nous sommes ici chez nous, grâce à vous, c'est exactement le sentiment que nous avons. Il y a beaucoup d'amis formidables qui sont ici de l'armée française, des anciens combattants, des héros de ma vie. Le gouverneur est ici et je vois l'ambassadeur de Belgique qui est ici, et une quantité d'amis et nous espérons que nous aurons l'occasion de nos vous voir plusieurs fois.

Merci de tout coeur pour l'accueil pour notre famille. Merci pour votre hospitalité et j'espère que vous accueillerez le général Craddock et sa femme comme vous avez accueilli moi-même et ma famille.

May all of you be blessed with the strength needed for the difficult times that we live in as you take this great Alliance to its destiny. I look forward to watching it from a distance. I look forward to helping in any way I can, Secretary General, to carry the message, to explain it to our publics, to explain why it is that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's best days are still in its future, and why they should value the existence of this organisation, which will add so much, not only to our collective security, but to the quality of our lives.

Thank you, and goodbye.