Admiral Michael Mullen USN appointed Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia

I warm­ly con­grat­u­late the Unit­ed States Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admi­ral Mike Mullen USN, fol­low­ing his appoint­ment as an Hon­orary Offi­cer (AO) in the Mil­i­tary Divi­sion of the Order of Aus­tralia at Gov­ern­ment House in Mel­bourne today.

Admi­ral Mullen was nom­i­nat­ed for the award in recog­ni­tion of his dis­tin­guished ser­vice to the mil­i­tary rela­tion­ship between Aus­tralia and the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca as the Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

The Gov­er­nor of Vic­to­ria, His Excel­len­cy Pro­fes­sor David de Kretser, rep­re­sent­ing the Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al, invest­ed Admi­ral Mullen in the pres­ence of the US Sec­re­tary of State, Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton, US Sec­re­tary of Defense, Dr Robert Gates, Prime Min­is­ter Julia Gillard, For­eign Min­is­ter Kevin Rudd, the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Mar­shal Angus Hous­ton and the Sec­re­tary of Defence, Dr Ian Watt. 

Admi­ral Mullen’s appoint­ment as an Hon­orary Offi­cer in the Mil­i­tary Divi­sion of the Order of Aus­tralia recog­nis­es his out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of Aus­tralian forces in Iraq dur­ing 2007 and 2008. His lead­er­ship has been char­ac­terised by his strate­gic under­stand­ing, dogged deter­mi­na­tion, and his com­mand approach.

Admi­ral Mullen was sworn in as the 17th Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 1 Octo­ber 2007. He serves as the prin­ci­pal mil­i­tary advi­sor to the Pres­i­dent, the Sec­re­tary of Defense, the Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil and the Home­land Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil. Pri­or to becom­ing Chair­man, Admi­ral Mullen served as the 28th Chief of Naval Operations.

Dur­ing Admi­ral Mullen’s time as the Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Australia’s Alliance with the Unit­ed States has strength­ened considerably. 

Admi­ral Mullen has also made an out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the Unit­ed States and Aus­tralia as oper­a­tional and exer­cise part­ners in com­bined exer­cis­es in the Asia Pacif­ic region. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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