PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. -- U.S. Space Force Senior Master Sgt Daniel Dempsey distinguished himself as an Honor Graduate from the Joint Special Operations Forces Senior Enlisted Academy located at MacDill Air Force Base Tampa, Fla., Nov. 23, 2022.
As a senior staff non-commissioned officer, Dempsey attended JSOFSEA to further develop his skills in advising, leading and mentoring in operational and strategic environments. By attending this course Dempsey was able to deliver sound and relevant senior enlisted counsel on complex issues that affect the joint force.
JSOFSEA also provides students with the Joint Senior Enlisted Leadership perspective via key lessons, including joint communications, organizational management, strategy, and force development.
“JSOFSEA aligned my strategic insight by exposing and fulfilling contextual gaps within the global competitive arena. The most useful strategic skill I departed JSOFSEA with was a national perspective,” said Dempsey, who leads an 85-member team. “This is critical because our nation’s strategic tone and direction shapes everything that the military does across all strategic, operational, and tactical levels.”
In his current position, Dempsey advises his leadership across three headquarters staff components. His team leads operational training, readiness, tactics development, component planning, exercise integration, and global force management allowing Space Operations Command to support Joint Force Commanders’ forces.
“My touch points with various joint and combined operations centers aided me with the integration difficulties present in a joint environment.” said Dempsey.
The JSOFSEA curriculum is designed to help students like Dempsey build on foundational concepts by examining different levels of operational environments and how the entire government approaches them. Dempsey says his current position and the skills learned at JSOFSEA have helped shape how he now thinks strategically.
“As service members, it’s easy to develop mindsets centered around the military instrument of power,” said Dempsey. “However, our nation’s diplomatic, informational, and economic arms are equally vital for great power competition.”
Dempsey’s advice to future Guardians wishing to attend the course is rooted in humility and representing the Space Force accordingly.
“Be humble but come prepared to serve as a Space Force ambassador. Although space, cyber, and Special Operations Force all possess domain or environmentally specific requirements, each must remain responsive to global and multi-domain demands present in great power competition,” states Dempsey. “For Guardians, this results in a large demand from the joint force for space enterprise knowledge and capability insights.”
Dempsey’s leaders recognized and applauded his accomplishments, highlighting the important role the non-commissioned officer corps plays in preparing the force to meet the mission.
“We are incredibly proud of SMSgt Dempsey’s recent accomplishment of becoming a JSOFSEA honor graduate,” said Chief Master Sergeant Jacob C. Simmons, SpOC Senior Enlisted Leader. “Our Space Force’s competence, capability, and capacity to be a credible national option is underpinned by our ability to present forward battle-ready warfighters steeped in how to promote and project space power across increasingly dynamic and multi-layered domains.”
NCO’s play an imperative role in the readiness and overall function of SpOC as a field command.
“Practitioners well versed in both the art and science of war like Dempsey are the prototypical Guardian. The competencies and perspectives he gained at JSOFSEA will be leveraged to help us develop the assured readiness we must have to meet the demands our nation and allies require, from competition to conflict. Congratulations, SMSgt Dempsey.” said Simmons.