MANHATTAN — The nation’s highest-ranking military officer is coming this fall to Kansas State University.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the 18th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will present the university’s 161st Landon Lecture at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 1 in McCain Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Dempsey is the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. Armed Forces and the principal military adviser to the president, the secretary of defense and the National Security Council. Before becoming chairman, he served as the Army’s 37th Chief of Staff.
A New Jersey native and career armor officer, Dempsey is a 1974 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. During more than 37 years of service, he has commanded at every echelon — from platoon to combatant command — across the United States and around the globe.
“It’s an honor to have Gen. Dempsey carry on the Landon Lecture Series tradition of bringing influential military leaders to campus,” said Jackie Hartman, the university’s chief of staff and director of community relations. “Kansas State University’s reputation as a military-inclusive university is built in part on having such leaders share their experiences and knowledge with our students, faculty and the broader community.”
For more than 40 years, Kansas State University’s Alfred M. Landon Lecture Series on Public Issues has brought prestigious speakers to campus. Landon served two consecutive terms as Kansas governor and was the 1936 Republican Party nominee for president of the United States.
