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Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I have had an opportunity over the years to work with some extraordinary leaders in our military, but one of the exceptional leaders whom I have recently come to know and work with is Gen. Glen D. VanHerck. He is the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command--we know it as NORAD--and the U.S. Northern Command, or USNORTHCOM.

General VanHerck is preparing to retire after more than 36 years of service to our Nation. As I mentioned, he is an individual whom I have come to know over the recent years, and I am proud to have been able to work with him in parts of my career. But I want to ensure that his distinguished service, which includes successful commands at every level--as director of the Joint Staff and a long list of U.S. Air Force assignments, flying the F-15, the F-35, and the B-2--is all reflected in the Congressional Record.

General VanHerck has led by example and served selflessly throughout his career. He has always, always thought of the men and women under his command. He has thought of their families. He has thought of our future and the world that we all hope to leave for our grandchildren.

I know that General VanHerck and his wife Marilyn are looking forward to his upcoming retirement, but I would hope that he will continue to serve in a different way, utilizing his extraordinary expertise and knowledge.

From August 2020 to November 2023, General VanHerck oversaw the most robust and dynamic transformation in the history of NORAD and USNORTHCOM. This transformation enabled the commands to support the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada while ensuring the defense of both homelands. His direction singlehandedly resulted in decisive national and international military operations that operationalized the commands and shifted from a reactive regional focus to a more proactive and globally integrated campaigning effort.

General VanHerck has also been instrumental in leading a wide range of homeland defense operations, including defense efforts against Russian long-range aviation, North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles, and Russian and Chinese out-of-area maritime operations. He established a clear strategic vision, focus, and priorities, inspiring consistent operational and organizational excellence throughout pandemic response operations; Operation Allies Welcome, which supported over 84,000 Afghan refugees; and the first kinetic engagements of hostile objects over North America in the whole history of NORAD and USNORTHCOM.

General VanHerck also led a collaborative effort to focus on homeland defense, the top priority of the national defense strategy, by adopting a modernized and integrated deterrence approach toward strategic competitors. Prioritizing domain awareness, information dominance, decision superiority, and global integration empowered NORAD and USNORTHCOM to successfully campaign day to day in competition and will improve the commands' ability to deter in crisis and defeat, if necessary, in conflict.

General VanHerck's strategic foresight and collaboration with members of the highest level of government, both here in the United States as well as in Canada, guided the commands to look beyond traditional approaches and customary missions and to examine evolving adversary actions, capabilities, and intent.

Recognizing an urgent need to advance NORAD and USNORTHCOM's capabilities to outpace peer competitors and rogue nations, General VanHerck operationalized the commands, reaffirming their unyielding commitment to the highest priority mission of homeland defense.

In response to our adversaries' efforts to operate and train in and through the Arctic region, NORAD executed the northernmost deployment of fighter and supporting aircraft from forward operating locations in Northern Canada to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, formerly known as Thule.

For its part, USNORTHCOM oversaw Arctic Edge--this is the largest exercise in Alaska--in 2020, deploying a joint and combined force of 800 to advance communications, domain awareness, infrastructure, and sustainable presence in coordinated air, land, maritime, and cyber domain field training.

Additionally, for the first time ever, USNORTHCOM led a large-scale, multicombatant-command, homeland defense exercise from the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group while the strike group was under USNORTHCOM's operational command. This allowed four combatant commands and NORAD to conduct homeland defense operations, exercise joint integration, conduct multinational operations, and strengthen interoperability in command and control.

Throughout, General VanHerck clearly articulated warfighter requirements, including the need for ready, trained, and well-equipped forces that are capable of operating wherever they are needed. That, in turn, has led to significant advances in Arctic capabilities for the joint force, including infrastructure upgrades at northern bases, improvements to the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, and facilities to support deployment of ground-based air defense systems at Eielson Air Force Base.

These forward-looking efforts have also led to testing cold-weather technologies, developing deployable extreme-cold-weather expeditionary capabilities, evaluating satellite and terrestrial Arctic communication solutions aboard an icebreaker, and significantly increasing communications coverage in the region.

Mr. President, as one who has focused on the Arctic for decades now, I can attest that General VanHerck gets the Arctic. He knows and understands the value and the significance of the Arctic. He gets it.

Across decades and assignments, General VanHerck continuously demonstrated a clear strategic vision for defending the homeland, and his focus and priorities consistently yielded operational success and organizational excellence. His leadership and passion have defended the people of the United States and Canada, and, for that, we are grateful.

So to General VanHerck, I thank you for your long and your distinguished career in the service of our Nation, and on the occasion of your well-deserved retirement, I wish you and your family nothing but the very best and congratulate you for a job well done.

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