[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 74 (Friday, May 25, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5677-S5678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRATULATIONS, GENERAL LENNOX

  Mr. REED. Madam President, last evening, the Senate of the United 
States confirmed MG William J. Lennox, Jr., of the U.S. Army, to be the 
56th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West 
Point.
  General Lennox is an extraordinary officer and gentleman. I have 
known him for a long time. In July of 1967, we entered West Point 
together. He proceeded through West Point and for 30 years he has been 
an extraordinary soldier. He represents the very best of what our Army 
is all about. He is a soldier and he is a scholar, but he is a soldier 
first.
  He was commissioned in field artillery and served in various 
demanding assignments from platoon leader, battery commander, executive 
officer of the 2d Battalion, 41st Field Artillery in Germany; Deputy 
Commanding General to the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and School 
at Fort Sill; Chief of Staff, III Corps at Fort Hood; and Assistant 
Chief Of Staff, United Nations Command for the United States Forces 
Korea. In his most recent assignment, General Lennox was the liaison 
for the Department of the Army to Congress.
  He has performed all of these duties in extraordinary fashion. Bill 
Lennox understands our Army is composed of the greatest soldiers in the 
world. He respects these soldiers. He has committed himself to lead 
these magnificent men and women with the same dedication, the same 
professionalism, the same fidelity to duty and country that these 
soldiers demonstrate every day.
  He is a great soldier, but he is also a distinguished scholar. Bill 
was assigned to the Department of English at the Military Academy after 
receiving a master's degree from Princeton University. He accomplished 
a remarkable feat while teaching English at West Point. While being 
active as an officer and professor at the Military Academy, he also 
obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University in English.
  He is a rare combination of a great soldier and a real scholar. In 
fact, typical of the Army life, nothing is very easy. The day Bill was 
scheduled to take his final Ph.D. examination and present his oral 
defense was also the day that his family was moving from West Point to 
his next assignment. So as Bill was taking these exams, and after 
spending the week preparing not only for a demanding analysis of 
English literature but also a move, fortunately, his wife and his 
partner, Anne, had to pack up the house and get them moving.
  It illustrates something else that General Lennox brings to West 
Point. He has an extraordinary family. His wife Anne has not only 
played a large part in his life, but also a large role in his career. 
Their sons are extraordinarily talented young men. Together, Bill and 
Anne will represent to a whole generation of cadets, both male and 
female, the exemplar of what an Army family should be: committed, 
patriotic, and dedicated. They will ensure that cadets are conscious 
not only of their role as a professional members of the military 
service but also of their role as people and neighbors.
  Bill is following a distinguished predecessor, LTG Dan Christman. The 
United States Military Academy today has compiled a remarkable record. 
Dan has reinvigorated the Academy in terms of academic performance, 
physical infrastructure, and commitment to basic values that make our 
Military Academy and our Army a very special one indeed.
  I am confident that Bill Lennox can meet the very high standards 
established by Dan Christman and a whole succession of predecessors: 
people such as William Westmoreland, Douglas MacArthur, and Robert E. 
Lee. West Point has a very storied tradition and great legacy. Bill 
Lennox brings to that great tradition the character of a soldier and 
something else: Bill understands and appreciates that he is helping to 
train the leaders of the army of democracy; that unlike other countries 
around the world, we do not have a separate military caste. The men and 
women who lead our Army, the soldiers who man our Army come from every 
walk of life. They understand that they defend this great democracy, 
with all its contradictions, with all its unmet, untidy, and messy 
proceedings. They do it with great faith and great fidelity, with great 
competency and great patriotism.

  I am delighted and honored to be able to say a few words about my 
friend and the next Superintendent of the United States Military 
Academy. I am pleased to commend Bill Lennox for his career and to 
celebrate his new appointment. But I am also honored to convey to my 
colleagues not only deep respect and affection for Bill, but also the 
sense that our Army is producing and promoting an individual who 
recognizes what we do here is very important. As Superintendent of the 
United States Military Academy, he will ensure that this democracy will 
continue.
  Ultimately, it is not our weapons, but it is the brave men and women 
who wear the uniform of the United States that allows this experiment 
in freedom and democracy to continue day in and day out. He will 
instill in a generation of cadets a deep devotion to the credo and core 
values of the Military Academy: duty, honor, country. He will do that 
because he has lived his life according to that credo of duty, Army, 
country.
  To Bill and Anne, good luck, Godspeed, go forward, and lead a right 
institution into this new century.

[[Page S5678]]

  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FITZGERALD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Clinton). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. FITZGERALD. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Fitzgerald pertaining to the submission of S. 
Con. Res. 44 are located in today's Record under ``Submission of 
Concurrent and Senate Resolutions.'')
  Mr. FITZGERALD. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KYL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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