New York City native and Marine OIF veteran is promoted to gunnery sergeant

Photo By Gunnery Sgt. Alexis Mulero | Jamaica, N.Y., native, Gunnery Sgt. Keith C. Dempsey was pinned on to the rank of gunnery sergeant by Col. Christopher McCarthy, commanding officer at Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group and Gunnery Sgt. Ronald Sampson, and infantry skills instructor for the training and instructor group of the unit. Dempsey is an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran who is currently serving as the force deployment chief of MCSCG.  

FORT STORY, VA, UNITED STATES

10.03.2011

Story by Gunnery Sgt. Alexis Mulero 

Fleet Marine Force Atlantic, Marine Forces Command, Marine Forces Northern Command

FORT STORY, Va. - Jamaica, N.Y., native and Martin Van Buren High School class of 1998 graduate, Keith C. Dempsey was promoted to the rank of Marine Corps gunnery sergeant during a ceremony with fellow Marines aboard Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Va., Oct. 3.

Dempsey entered active military service in November 1998, and is currently serving as the force deployment chief at Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group in Virginia Beach, Va.

Over the course of 12 years, he has planned for the deployment of more than 500,000 Marines in support of various operations throughout the globe to include Operation Haiti Relief, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Prior to checking into MCSCG, Dempsey served as a force deployment planning and execution chief for U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., from August 2008 until August 2010.

Dempsey lives in the Hampton Roads area along with his wife Latasha and their two children, son Keith II, who is almost three-years-old and infant daughter Kellsi.

His parents Ronald Dempsey and Ethel Crawford still reside in the borough of Queens, N.Y.

Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group is a unit in the Marine Corps that coordinates, manages, executes, and evaluates United States Marine Corps Security Cooperation programs and activities, to include assessment, planning, related education and training, and advisor support to ensure unity of effort in building Partner Nation Security Forces capacity and capability in order to facilitate USMC and regional Marine Forces component support to combatant commanders security cooperation objectives.

• Date Taken: 10.03.2011
• Date Posted: 10.03.2011 17:49
• Story ID: 77955
• Location: FORT STORY, VA, US