Gen. Kelly lost his son, who was serving his country, but
now he's working for Trump, so denigrate, shame, and smear him. I know it's
nothing new. I know it's par for the course, but it's still appalling that
progressives say they 'respect the uniform,' but have zero problems trashing
those who disagree with them. No wonder there is such a partisan divide. Would
you sit next to a person like this? I certainly wouldn't. It's not okay to go
after Gold Star families unless they're not our type of family, says Liberal
America. That's being shown today.
The Trump White House has been bombarded with criticism
over President Trump’s remarks to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson,
Myeshia Johnson. Sgt. Johnson was killed in an ambush by ISIS forces in Niger.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) was able to overhear the call to Mrs. Johnson and
said she didn’t hear the whole call, but heard him say that the late sergeant
knew “what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurts."
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a former general
in the U.S. Marine Corps, handled the press briefing today. Kelly started off
by explaining what happens when a serviceperson in the U.S. military has been
killed in combat, and the process of returning the body back home.
Mr. Kelly said he recommended to President Trump to not
call because there is no perfect way to make that call. There is nothing the
president can say to ease the awful burden that has befallen the family of the
serviceman or woman who has died. Kelly was in on the phone call. He said what
was transmitted to Mrs. Johnson was that her husband was "a brave man, a
fallen hero, he knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted—there
is no reason to enlist—and he was where he wanted to be, exactly where he
wanted to be, with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was
taken.”
That was the message. Kelly said he was “stunned” that a
member of Congress listened in on that conversation, lamenting how there is
nothing sacred, listing Gold Star families, religion, and the dignity of life
as things that have been sacrificed at the altar of politics.
“I just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man
or woman to die on the battlefield—I just thought that might be sacred,” he
added. Kelly added that upon seeing what Rep. Wilson was doing, the only thing
he could do to collect his thoughts was go to Arlington National Cemetery for
an hour and a half to be with the “finest men and women on this Earth.” He
recalled seeing the stones on some of the graves that he put there for troops
that had died following his orders on the battlefield.
He then slammed Wilson’s “selfish behavior,” while
calling on the press to reel it back and maybe keep this act in our society
sacred. Kelly then took questions, but
only from reporters who knew Gold Star families. Very few hands went up.
Rep. Wilson responded to this presser by saying, “John
Kelly's trying to keep his job. He will say anything."
Here's the full transcript of Gen. Kelly's remarks:
JOHN
F. KELLY: Well, thanks a lot. And it is a more serious note, so I just wanted
to perhaps make more of a statement than an -- give more of an explanation in
what amounts to be a traditional press interaction.
Most
Americans don't know what happens when we lose one of soldiers, sailors,
airmen, Marines, our Coast Guardsmen in combat. So let me tell you what
happens:
Their
buddies wrap them up in whatever passes as a shroud, puts them on a helicopter
as a routine, and sends them home. Their first stop along the way is when
they're packed in ice, typically at the airhead. And then they're flown to,
usually, Europe where they're then packed in ice again and flown to Dover Air
Force Base, where Dover takes care of the remains, embalms them, meticulously
dresses them in their uniform with the medals that they've earned, the emblems
of their service, and then puts them on another airplane linked up with a
casualty officer escort that takes them home.
A
very, very good movie to watch, if you haven't ever seen it, is "Taking
Chance," where this is done in a movie -- HBO setting. Chance Phelps was
killed under my command right next to me, and it's worth seeing that if you've
never seen it.
So
that's the process. While that's happening, a casualty officer typically goes
to the home very early in the morning and waits for the first lights to come
on. And then he knocks on the door; typically a mom and dad will answer, a
wife. And if there is a wife, this is happening in two different places; if the
parents are divorced, three different places. And the casualty officer proceeds
to break the heart of a family member and stays with that family until -- well,
for a long, long time, even after the internment. So that's what happens.
are
these young men and women? They are the best 1 percent this country produces.
Most of you, as Americans, don't know them. Many of you don't know anyone who
knows any one of them. But they are the very best this country produces, and
they volunteer to protect our country when there's nothing in our country
anymore that seems to suggest that selfless service to the nation is not only
appropriate, but required. But that's all right.
Who
writes letters to the families? Typically, the company commander -- in my case,
as a Marine -- the company commander, battalion commander, regimental
commander, division commander, Secretary of Defense, typically the service
chief, commandant of the Marine Corps, and the President typically writes a letter.
Typically,
the only phone calls a family receives are the most important phone calls they
could imagine, and that is from their buddies. In my case, hours after my son
was killed, his friends were calling us from Afghanistan, telling us what a
great guy he was. Those are the only phone calls that really mattered.
And
yeah, the letters count, to a degree, but there's not much that really can take
the edge off what a family member is going through.
So
some Presidents have elected to call. All Presidents, I believe, have elected
to send letters. If you elect to call a family like this, it is about the most
difficult thing you could imagine. There's no perfect way to make that phone
call.
When
I took this job and talked to President Trump about how to do it, my first
recommendation was he not do it because it's not the phone call that parents,
family members are looking forward to. It's nice to do, in my opinion, in any
event.
He
asked me about previous Presidents, and I said, I can tell you that President
Obama, who was my Commander-in-Chief when I was on active duty, did not call my
family. That was not a criticism. That was just to simply say, I don't believe
President Obama called. That's not a negative thing. I don't believe President
Bush called in all cases. I don't believe any President, particularly when the
casualty rates are very, very high -- that Presidents call. But I believe they
all write.
So
when I gave that explanation to our President three days ago, he elected to
make phone calls in the cases of four young men who we lost in Niger at the
earlier part of this month. But then he said, how do you make these calls? If
you're not in the family, if you've never worn the uniform, if you've never
been in combat, you can't even imagine how to make that call. I think he very
bravely does make those calls.
The
call in question that he made yesterday -- or day before yesterday now -- were
to four family members, the four fallen. And remember, there's a next-of-kin
designated by the individual. If he's married, that's typically the spouse. If
he's not married, that's typically the parents unless the parents are divorced,
and then he selects one of them. If he didn't get along with his parents, he’ll
select a sibling. But the point is, the phone call is made to the next-of-kin
only if the next-of-kin agrees to take the phone call. Sometimes they don't.
So a
pre-call is made: The President of the United States or the commandant of the
Marine Corps, or someone would like to call, will you accept the call? And
typically, they all accept the call.
So
he called four people the other day and expressed his condolences in the best
way that he could. And he said to me, what do I say? I said to him, sir,
there's nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families.
Well,
let me tell you what I told him. Let me tell you what my best friend, Joe
Dunford, told me -- because he was my casualty officer. He said, Kel, he was
doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was
getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were
because we're at war. And when he died, in the four cases we're talking about,
Niger, and my son's case in Afghanistan -- when he died, he was surrounded by
the best men on this Earth: his friends.
That's
what the President tried to say to four families the other day. I was stunned
when I came to work yesterday morning, and broken-hearted at what I saw a
member of Congress doing. A member of Congress who listened in on a phone call
from the President of the United States to a young wife, and in his way tried
to express that opinion -- that he's a brave man, a fallen hero, he knew what
he was getting himself into because he enlisted. There's no reason to enlist;
he enlisted. And he was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be,
with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken.
That
was the message. That was the message that was transmitted.
It
stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation.
Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred. You know, when I
was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were
sacred, looked upon with great honor. That's obviously not the case anymore as
we see from recent cases. Life -- the dignity of life -- is sacred. That's
gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well.
Gold
Star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer. But I just
thought -- the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the
battlefield, I just thought that that might be sacred.
And
when I listened to this woman and what she was saying, and what she was doing
on TV, the only thing I could do to collect my thoughts was to go and walk
among the finest men and women on this Earth. And you can always find them
because they're in Arlington National Cemetery. I went over there for an
hour-and-a-half, walked among the stones, some of whom I put there because they
were doing what I told them to do when they were killed.
I'll
end with this: In October -- April, rather, of 2015, I was still on active
duty, and I went to the dedication of the new FBI field office in Miami. And it
was dedicated to two men who were killed in a firefight in Miami against drug
traffickers in 1986 -- a guy by the name of Grogan and Duke. Grogan almost
retired, 53 years old; Duke, I think less than a year on the job. Anyways, they
got in a gunfight and they were killed. Three other FBI agents were there, were
wounded, and now retired. So we go down -- Jim Comey gave an absolutely
brilliant memorial speech to those fallen men and to all of the men and women
of the FBI who serve our country so well, and law enforcement so well.
There
were family members there. Some of the children that were there were three or
four years old when their dads were killed on that street in Miami-Dade. Three
of the men that survived the fight were there, and gave a rendition of how
brave those men were and how they gave their lives.
And
a congresswoman stood up, and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the
most noise, stood up there and all of that and talked about how she was
instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of
her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President
Obama, and on that phone call he gave the money -- the $20 million -- to build
the building. And she sat down, and we were stunned. Stunned that she had done
it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned.
But,
you know, none of us went to the press and criticized. None of us stood up and
were appalled. We just said, okay, fine.
So I
still hope, as you write your stories, and I appeal to America, that let's not
let this maybe last thing that's held sacred in our society -- a young man,
young woman going out and giving his or her life for our country -- let's try
to somehow keep that sacred. But it eroded a great deal yesterday by the
selfish behavior of a member of Congress.
So
I'm willing to take a question or two on this topic. Let me ask you this: Is
anyone here a Gold Star parent or sibling? Does anyone here know a Gold Star
parent or sibling?
