Martin “Tank” Edward Dempsey (born 14 March 1952), is an American retired military officer who served as the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2011 to September 2015.

Dempsey assumed his assignment as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October 2011, and stepped down from the Chairmanship in September 2015.

[7][8][9] Following high school, Dempsey attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated with the Class of 1974.

[14] It was during this time that the U.S. intervention in Iraq changed dramatically as Fallujah fell to Sunni extremists and supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr built their strength and rose against American forces.

Then Major General Dempsey and his command assumed responsibility for the area of operations in Baghdad as the insurgency incubated, grew, and exploded.

[18] On 8 February 2011, Gates announced that President Barack Obama nominated Dempsey to be the 37th Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

[22] On 11 April 2011, Dempsey was sworn in as Chief of Staff of the United States Army at a ceremony at Fort Myer.

With Admiral Michael Mullen set to retire as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September 2011, U.S. President Obama needed to select his replacement.

The vice-chairman, Marine General James Cartwright, who was initially believed to be the front runner for the job, had fallen out of favor among senior officials in the Defense Department.

[23] In August 2011, General Dempsey was confirmed by unanimous consent to succeed Admiral Mike Mullen as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

[29] In October 2016, he was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, for commitment to British-American defense cooperation.