Outgoing NATO deputy commander has seen 'growing pains'

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, KCB OBE, Royal Navy, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, shakes the hand of Keith Nesbit of Virginia Beach after the change of command ceremony today. (Jesse Hutcheson | Special to The Virginian-Pilot)

By Jack Dorsey
The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

During his tenure as the deputy of NATO's command here, you'd think Adm. Sir Mark Stanhope would have missed seeing his native Europe.

But it's almost as though he never really left.

"Indeed, I have crossed the Atlantic 108 times in my three years here, and I don't hold the record," the Royal Navy officer said recently as he prepared for his change of command ceremony Monday.

Stanhope served as a head of Supreme Allied Command Transformation as the alliance reinvented itself in 2003. He has seen what he calls "the growing pains" of the command.

While in existence since the end of World War II, NATO's command here - once called Supreme Allied Command Atlantic - had to change to meet challenges of the 21st century.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, allies wanted to help in the fight against terror but were limited in their ability to project force. That is when SACT was charged with finding a way to change, train and equip the alliance forces now fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For most of its first 50 years, the NATO alliance numbered 16 nations. Its name and structure were altered to reflect a changing world that now includes 26 member nations.

"We created a structure that we thought was focusing on the right things and set it running," Stanhope said. "In fairness, they did a bloody good job.

"But after four years we think we can do it slightly smarter. We set this headquarters up to feed a NATO that was then nowhere near as operationally focused as it is now," referring to its combat operations.

SACT is commanded by U.S. Air Force Gen. Lance Smith. A British admiral traditionally has been deputy commander. That tradition likely will be broken when Stanhope's successor takes office.

Italian Adm. Luciano Zappata, 61, previously deputy chief of staff for the Italian navy, has been nominated to become Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.

As the command developed, it used as its model for transformation the U.S. Joint Forces Command structure, which Smith also heads.

One of the challenges has been getting the armed forces to transform so they can meet the current needs by "delivering a slightly different product than the one we were lined up to produce fighting in the Cold War," Stanhope said.

"But then, over the past four years, trying to get as common a view of what they really meant by this has been almost next to impossible."

Stanhope, 55, who commanded submarines, a frigate and the aircraft carrier Illustruous, entered the Royal Navy in 1970. His next assignment, while not officially announced, will be back in England, he said, where he and his wife will rejoin their daughter and other relatives.