Joint Chiefs pick is soldier-scholar — and singer

Last Friday, in front of news cameras and a gathering for kids and adults who have lost fathers, mothers and other relatives in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, Dempsey sang a bit of “New York, New York,’’ and also “The Unicorn’’ children’s song: “… there were green alligators, and long-neck geese, some humpty-back camels and some chimpanzees …’’

And he uses social media sites to push the music theme. In a recent Facebook post he mentioned that he likes to use videos set to music to reinforce the message in his Army presentations, and he asked younger soldiers to suggest selections. Among the responses: Metallica, AC/DC and endorsement of his recent use of a song by the group Disturbed.

At age 59, with 36 years of Army service after graduating from West Point, Dempsey comes across as energetic and athletic. Last year he underwent treatment for what his spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Alayne Conway, said Sunday was “head and neck cancer that presented itself as a tumor on the base of his tongue.’’ She said his doctors have given him a clean bill of health.

The story of Dempsey’s rise to the top job in the military is remarkable, not least because just a month ago it was widely presumed that Marine Gen. James Cartwright was a lock for the post. Dempsey had just been sworn in for a four-year term as the Army’s chief of staff, an assignment he clearly relished. A cup of coffee later, Dempsey is a Senate vote away from taking a much different job, one that will make him the senior military adviser to Obama.

Cartwright’s stock fell after the public release of a Pentagon investigation into claims of misconduct with a young female aide. The Pentagon’s inspector general cleared Cartwright of the most serious claims, which suggested he’d had an improper relationship with the woman. But the investigation found that he mishandled an incident in which the aide was drunk and either passed out or fell asleep in his hotel room, where he was working.