Joint Chief of Staff Resignation by Ray Starmann -Fiction!

Joint Chief of Staff Resignation by Ray Starmann –Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
A resignation speech that was supposedly given by Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, who was recently appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Obama, has gone viral.
The Truth:
There’s no truth to reports that General Joseph Dunford resigned as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in protest over President Obama’s foreign policy decisions.
Joseph Dunford was sworn in as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September 2015, and he still held the position at the time rumors that “America’s top general resigns” went viral in April 2016.
Those rumors started with an essay by Ray Starmann that appeared at Defense Watch on April 9. The essay, which appeared under the headline, “What the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Must Tell the Nation,” was a hypothetical first-person account of what the author believed General Dunford’s resignation should sound like:

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, in concern for the lives of current and future US military personnel and to honor those who have gone before, I must speak to the nation today.

I’ve called this press conference to announce that I am resigning as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and I am retiring after 39 years on active duty, which included combat service in Iraq leading the finest Marines in the world.

I am resigning as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retiring from the Marine Corps for the following reasons:

For the last seven years during the Obama Administration:

I have watched and remained silent as hundreds of senior officers were forced to resign or were forcibly retired because of their disagreements with the current policies wrecking the military.

I have watched and remained silent as people who have never served a day in uniform laid siege to the glorious traditions of the US military.

I have watched and remained silent as male ROTC cadets paraded in red high heels, male soldiers conducted physical training wearing pregnancy simulators, combat units dealt with breastfeeding and lactation issues in the field and sensitivity training became the standard operating procedure of the US military.

Taken out of context, some were led to believe that these remarks were actually made by General Dunford in his resignation speech. That’s not the case. General Dunford hasn’t resigned, and he didn’t make that speech.
In response to the confusion, the author posted a clarification on the story that states, “Since this article’s publication, some have asked if General Joe really made this speech and if he has indeed retired. General Joe did not say these words. I only wish he had.”