[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 133 (Wednesday, December 6, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S11313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RETIREMENT OF GENERAL JAMES L. JONES

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay special tribute to GEN 
James Logan Jones, USMC, who is concluding his extraordinary career in 
the Marine Corps with his retirement as Commander, United States 
European Command and as the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
  For 5 decades, Jim Jones and his family have faithfully served our 
Nation in peace and war. From 1965, when he led a platoon in the 
jungles of Vietnam, to 1999, when he became the 32nd Commandant of the 
United States Marine Corps and subsequently led the Corps through 9/11 
and the ensuing, turbulent years of the global war on terrorism, to the 
present day as he ensures that NATO--the world's preeminent security 
alliance--is ready for the 21st century, Jim Jones is the embodiment of 
what a modern American military leader should be--warrior, statesman, 
visionary.
  My long association with General Jones began in 1972 when I was 
privileged to take the oath of office as Secretary of the Navy at the 
historic Marine Barracks in our Nation's Capital. Years before, in the 
winter of 1951 to 1952, I served in Korea, as a young Marine Corps 
ground officer with the 1st Marine Air Wing. That modest service, 
coupled with many years of reserve duty thereafter, prompted me to 
select the Marine Barracks when I became the first Secretary in history 
to be sworn in on those grounds. Ten years later, I learned that one of 
the Marine captains who commanded a company of marines that marched at 
the ceremony that day was CPT Jim Jones. Years later, we were reunited 
when he was specially selected to come to the Senate to serve as a 
Marine Corps liaison officer. Our first trip, with Senator John Tower, 
the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the early 1980s, 
was to go to Lebanon to inspect the tragic site where the U.S. Marine 
barracks were blown up by suicidal terrorists.
  Jim's service in the Corps is a lasting memory for me, and many other 
Members, to name a few: Senators Hagel, Inouye, Levin, Lugar, McCain, 
Roberts, Stevens, Burns, and Thomas, because of his professionalism and 
dedication to the Senate's constitutional obligation ``to raise and 
support armies,'' and ``to provide and maintain a navy.''
  As the years passed on, I have observed with great admiration as Jim 
Jones applied his talents and abilities to the numerous opportunities 
and challenges he faced--from Vietnam to the halls of the Pentagon and 
Senate, to the deserts of the Middle East, to Eastern Europe and 
Africa. Our Nation has produced such a courageous, skilled and dynamic 
officer in Jim Jones.
  Among his most challenging assignments was his last where he led the 
most aggressive transformation efforts in NATO's history--including a 
comprehensive headquarters realignment, developing NATO's global 
military capabilities, creating the NATO Response Force, bringing new 
members into NATO's military structure, and embracing the concept and 
practice of out-of-area missions for NATO. Under his guidance, NATO now 
has 30,000 troops deployed in locations across the globe and is leading 
the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
  Unlike his predecessors, Jim Jones would travel to any geographic 
location in his area of responsibility to personally brief traveling 
Members of Congress--using charts galore.
  As a steadfast, life-long supporter of NATO for its unparalleled 
success in achieving peace through steadfast resolve, I was privileged 
to watch General Jones provide extraordinary leadership of NATO's 
military forces as NATO expanded its membership and began to embrace of 
out-of-area missions. I share his view that: ``NATO has been, and needs 
to remain, a great Alliance: great Alliances do great things. It is 
possible, even probable, that NATO's most important days and most 
important missions lie ahead in the future.'' Thanks in no small 
measure to General Jones' contributions, I am confident that NATO is 
and will be always ready for those challenges.
  For the years they have shared with him the burdens and joys of 
arduous public service, it is also important that we publicly thank his 
wife Diane, and their children, James, Jennifer, Kevin, and Greg. They, 
too, have sacrificed much for their country. How proud they are, and we 
are, that their son Greg is an active duty captain in the Marine Corps 
today. In keeping with the finest traditions of the Marine Corps 
throughout its 229-year history, General Jones and his family are 
grateful for their opportunity to serve, and our Nation is equally 
grateful for their contributions.
  As GEN Jim Jones prepares to ``hang up'' his Marine Corps sword, our 
Armed Forces, the Congress, and our Nation owe him a huge debt of 
gratitude for his many years of commitment and service to this country.
  General, sir, in the immortal words of the Navy-Marine Corps team, 
may you have fair winds and following seas as you embark on your next 
endeavor. Semper Fidelis.

                          ____________________