Washington (CNN) -- The Afghanistan commander whose career ended after a controversial profile in Rolling Stone magazine joked about his predicament and his post-military life at his retirement ceremony Friday in Washington.
"For those here tonight that feel the need to contradict my memories with the truth, remember I was there, too. I have stories on all of you, photos on many, and I know a Rolling Stone reporter," Gen. Stanley McChrystal said, poking at the reason for his forced retirement.
McChrystal's illustrious career came to an abrupt end when he resigned as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan after he and his staff were quoted in a Rolling Stone magazine article criticizing and mocking key administration officials.
McChrystal collected his medals and verbal commendations from the top men of the military, White House and the Afghanistan ambassador with a bittersweet smile.
"I left a mission I felt strongly about. I ended a career I love that began over 38 years ago. I left unfulfilled commitments I made to many comrades in the fight -- commitments I hold sacred," he said. "My service did not end as I would have wished".
But, McChrystal said, he and his wife, Annie, will approach the future with "hope and iPhones." He said the couple had spent some years apart but were now reconnected, aided by new technologies like Skype.
The West Point graduate and former Green Beret was a senior official for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. Between 2003 and 2008, he was the commander of the highly clandestine Joint Special Operations Command, which oversees the military's most sensitive forces, including the Army's Delta Force.
"We say goodbye to Stan McChrystal today with pride and sadness," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said at the ceremony. "Pride for the remarkable roster of achievement that he has compiled as a man and a soldier. Sadness that our comrade and his prodigious talents are leaving us".
CNN
