KINGS BAY -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he is visiting sailors here to further his education about the U.S. military’s most important strategic deterrence mission.
Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford flew from NATO meetings in Brussels to the Naval Submarine Base here to speak to sailors involved in the mission.
Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Troxell, the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman, joined Dunford for the tour at Kings Bay.
The general said he has wanted to make the visit since he took office last October. “I’ve had it on my list to visit each element of the nuclear triad,” he said.
Last week, in conjunction with the U.S. Northern Command change of command, he was able to visit the Joint Interagency Combined Space Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Before that, he visited U.S. Strategic Command to check on the command and control of the nuclear enterprise.
“This is obviously the sea-based element of the triad,” he said. “I will in the coming weeks visit one of the missile sites, and I will obviously visit our bombers. This is just me making sure I have a good pulse of the nuclear force.”
The chairman wants to hear from the sailors themselves on the state of the submarines and what challenges they believe America faces. He will talk training, quality of life, and the operations tempo of the submarine force.
“The best way to do that is look eyeball to eyeball with the sailors and talk about it,” he said.