Obama Aims to Shape Military for 21st Century

WASHINGTON --- As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to assume the role of commander in chief, one of the stated items on his list of priorities is to shape the U.S. military for the 21st century.>> Obama, whos slated to be inaugurated Jan. 20, has not served in military uniform, but his climb to the U.S. presidency culminates a public service career that began in 1997 as a member of the Illinois State Senate, where he served three terms, followed by a successful bid for the U.S. Senate in 2004.>> As a junior U.S. senator, Obama, a graduate of Harvard Law School and the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee. He fought to help veterans get the disability pay they were promised while working to prepare the Veterans Affairs Department for the thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the president-elects.>> Obamas early exposure to military culture came from the maternal grandparents who helped to raise him during his adolescent years in Honolulu. His grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham, enlisted in the Army during World War II and served under Gen. George S. Patton while his wife, Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham, worked on a bomber assembly line.>> The president-elect has said that Americas greatest military asset is the men and women who wear the uniform of the U.S. armed forces.>> When we do send our men and women into harm's way, we must also clearly define the mission, prescribe concrete political and military objectives, seek out the advice of our military commanders, evaluate the intelligence, plan accordingly, and ensure that our troops have the resources, support, and equipment they need to protect themselves and fulfill their mission, he told the Chicago Foreign Affairs Council in April 2007.