LONDON — Delivering a swan song as the US Chief of Space Operations, a reflective and somewhat philosophical Gen. Chance Saltzman today capped his 35-year career in uniform by championing the strength of alliances, noting that a key role for military officials is to act as a stabilizing force for democracy.
“In the hyper-political environment we find ourselves, with partisan politics creating divisions between a multitude of stakeholders, I remind myself that military institutions in our democracies, particularly military leadership, serves as the ballast in the ship,” Saltzman said during the Global Air and Space Chiefs conference here.
“While it may feel like the ballast slows progress as the ship of state attempts to quickly move towards its goals, the ballast creates stability when the inevitable storms arise,” the general continued. Military leaders, he added, “must remember our roles, think long term, offer our military experience to decision makers, and do what we can to provide the stability and be a calming presence.”
In a later roundtable with reporters, Saltzman was pressed on those remarks against the backdrop of trans-Atlantic tensions between the Trump administration and European allies, most recently represented by the abrupt exit of Gen. Christopher Donahue, the Army’s former top general in Europe.
