--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Martin Dempsey by General Peter Chiarelli: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08c72f2d75062f53/6987eb12e20a879f66a88e58/martin-dempsey-time-100-2015-leaders.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 15, 2015 # Martin Dempsey by General Peter Chiarelli  Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff U. S. Army General Martin Dempsey is on the sidelines before the Green Bay Packers play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers December 21, 2014 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The Packers won 20 - 3\. (AP Photo / Al Messerschmidt) Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff U. S. Army General Martin Dempsey is on the sidelines before the Green Bay Packers play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers December 21, 2014 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The Packers won 20 - 3\. (AP Photo / Al Messerschmidt)Al Messerschmidt—AP General Martin Dempsey is truly a Renaissance man: an English major who is as comfortable singing Irish ballads as he is devising counterterrorism strategies or dealing with the mess left by sequestration. Dempsey’s time as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff has been dominated by trips to the Hill to educate those who refuse to learn prior-war lessons. Since graduating from West Point, he has faced traditional fights against the Soviet Union and nontraditional fights against al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and ISIS. His mastery of the kinetic battlefields of the past and today’s counterterrorism strategies makes him a war-weary President’s most trusted military adviser. His cavalryman’s lineage makes him the first post-Goldwater-Nichols Chairman to embody the true tenets of today’s joint warfare. And his ability to sing 162 Irish ballads from memory would make you wish you’d been coached by his grandmother. _Chiarelli retired as U.S. Army vice chief of staff in 2012_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2015-time-100/3823200/martin-dempsey-2015-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2015-time-100/3823200/martin-dempsey-2015-time-100/"},"headline":"Martin Dempsey","datePublished":"2015-04-15T17:08:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:29.423Z","description":"Renaissance general","url":"https://time.com/collections/2015-time-100/3823200/martin-dempsey-2015-time-100/","keywords":["TIME 100"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08c72f2d75062f53/6987eb12e20a879f66a88e58/martin-dempsey-time-100-2015-leaders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08c72f2d75062f53/6987eb12e20a879f66a88e58/martin-dempsey-time-100-2015-leaders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2015-time-100/3823200/martin-dempsey-2015-time-100/","name":"Martin Dempsey"}}]}] ```