[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 19 (Thursday, February 1, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S340-S341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO GENERAL PAUL NAKASONE

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize and celebrate 
the career of an exceptional public servant, GEN Paul Nakasone. General 
Nakasone is retiring from the Army after 37 years of military service, 
most recently as the Director of the National Security Agency and 
Commander of United States Cyber Command. He is a decorated combat 
veteran, and his career has been exceptional. His first operational 
tour of duty, in 1987, was at Fort Carson, CO, as an assistant 
intelligence officer. His tours since have brought him everywhere from 
Korea to Kansas, Georgia to Iraq, and to Fort Belvoir, the Pentagon, 
and Alexandria, VA.
  Over the last 6 years General Nakasone has led the women and men of 
the National Security Agency, ensuring that its unique, timely and 
accurate intelligence insights on topics of critical national security 
are delivered to warfighters, policymakers, and U.S. allies. As 
chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I am a 
firsthand daily consumer of NSA's signals intelligence and analysis, 
and I cannot stress enough the importance, value, and insight it brings 
to us as policymakers.
  Under his leadership of NSA and concurrently, as Commander of U.S. 
Cyber Command, General Nakasone oversaw greater integration between 
U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA. He established several NSA 
organizations, including a Cybersecurity Directorate, a China Strategy 
Center, and the Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, to partner with 
private industry. He spearheaded the development of several successful 
joint NSA and Cyber Command teams such as the Russia Small Group on 
election security, which has been vital in securing U.S. elections 
through the last three election cycles.
  In 2018, during General Nakasone's first appearance before the 
committee as Director of the NSA, he told members that his priority 
coming into the position was the NSA workforce. He called them the core 
of the Agency and was adamant about assessing the challenges to 
retaining ``his talent'' and also recruiting more talent. He knew, as 
with any successful organization, the NSA relies on its brilliant and 
skilled workforce of intelligence professionals to accomplish its 
national security mission. Their well-being and success have been a 
priority for him throughout his tenure and during his nearly 20 
appearances before the committee. He helped to grow the next generation 
of intelligence analysts and collectors, mathematical scientists, 
linguists, and cybersecurity experts with programs such as Women in 
Cyber, cybersecurity and foreign language summer camps, codebreaker 
challenges, and with partnerships at colleges and universities across 
the country.
  In speaking of the next generation, I would be remiss in not sharing 
the incredible story of General Nakasone's father, retired Colonel 
Edwin Nakasone, known as Bud. On the morning of December 7, 1941, then 
14-year-old Bud Nakasone, now 96, was eating a bowl of corn flakes in 
his kitchen when he saw Japanese planes streaking through the skies, 
part of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. He saw the planes strafing 
the nearby barracks and saw a bomb drop on the nearby airfield. He saw 
U.S. planes, barracks, and hangars going up in flames. As one of the 
planes flew over their home, he saw on the plane ``the big red 
meatball''--what the military called the large red circle representing 
the Japanese Rising Sun--and in the cockpit, the Japanese pilot wearing 
goggles and a white scarf--and he realized we were at war.
  Bud Nakasone enlisted in the Army in 1945, and he served as an 
interpreter during the occupation of Japan. He later served both on 
Active Duty and with the Army Reserve, retiring after 41 years of 
service. He made his career as a high school teacher and college 
professor in Minnesota. General Nakasone's mother Mary was also an 
educator--a librarian at the University of Minnesota--when she met Bud. 
They were married in 1954 are still both living in Minnesota and will 
celebrate 70 years together this September.

[[Page S341]]

  General Nakasone has said that his father's career in the Army 
Reserve influenced his decision to enroll in the Army's ROTC program 
and that, when he started learning about the 442nd Infantry Regiment of 
the U.S. Army--a World War II fighting unit composed almost entirely of 
second-generation American soldiers of Japanese ancestry--and 
interviewed several of its veterans, he also became interested in 
serving.
  He has remarked that some of his most satisfying assignments included 
the privilege to command soldiers, including as a company commander 
while deployed along the demilitarized zone that separates North and 
South Korea.
  He is a big sports fan, including of the Minnesota Vikings, which 
means he knows how to keep a stiff upper lip when life brings 
disappointment or misfortune, whether in the form of a missed Gary 
Anderson field goal or a lengthy Senate hold. On General Nakasone's 
bio, it is noted that he and his wife Susan are the proud parents of 
four children, who form the nucleus of ``Team Nakasone,'' and I know 
how important their efforts and sacrifices have also been in allowing 
General Nakasone to take on assignments of increasing responsibility 
and importance to the security of the United States.
  On behalf of a grateful nation, as he transitions to future 
opportunities, I would like to publicly thank Paul for his long 
military career, his contributions to the Nation and our national 
security, and for his leadership of the intelligence professionals at 
the National Security Agency, and I want to personally thank the 
Nakasone family for their critical role in supporting him throughout 
his service to the Nation.
  Paul, thank you, and we will miss you.

                          ____________________