it ought to go without saying, but just to make this explicitly clear: the author is Admiral Mike Mullen (ret), whose last position before he retired was as the

it ought to go without saying, but just to make this explicitly clear: the author is Admiral Mike Mullen (ret), whose last position before he retired was as the seventeenth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was a servicemember from 1968 to 2011, served under 9 administrations, and was appointed chair of the joint chiefs by GWB in 2007 and retained through Obama's first term.