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Chief of Staff General Kelly: What Happens to the Fallen [UPDATED with Full Transcript]

Every single inhuman thing that is making political hay out of criticizing the President’s phone call needs to know what vile scum they have become.

Kelly: “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, was sacred. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. Gold star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer. I just thought the selfless devotion that brings a man or a woman to die on the battlefield, I just thought that might be sacred.”

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

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.

Who 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 brokenhearted 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. (Editor’s note: The F.B.I. agent for which the building is named was named Jerry L. Dove, not Duke.)

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, O.K., 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?

O.K., you get the question.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Howard Nelsone October 19, 2017, 5:52 PM

    CoS Kelly illuminates where we have fallen to. Fallen to a so-called secular society where very little is sacred and so much is profane.
    As a country of some 320 million we still contain 10’s of millions holding to the traditional standards — witness the rejection of the kneeling numbskulls who’ve never studied the national annual crime statistics reports, and the revulsion of the general citizenry against the debauchery of Hollywood and other MSM entities.
    The social rot is being consumed by the maggot-like Intersectionalists cannibalizing each other to gain power and more of the limited resources.
    Similarly, the disarray in the Democrap Party is an indicator of their power collapse and inability to support the Intersectionalists’ interests.

  • J.J. October 19, 2017, 9:03 PM

    General Kelly spoke for millions who share his values of duty, honor, country. There is a man who can be counted on when the chips are down. Semper fi, General, Semper fi.

  • Jewel Atkins October 19, 2017, 9:58 PM

    Watching The Empty Barrel boast about being a rock star shoved me over the edge. Sometimes all ya got is quiet, cold rage.

  • Jewel Atkins October 19, 2017, 10:01 PM
  • Nori October 19, 2017, 10:24 PM

    WTWT, have done,twice now. CoS Kelly is not spouting jingo/politico-speak. This was not a recruitment video. Facts were laid out. In his military man sparse eloquence, he politely revealed the all-sparkle,all-hat bullshitterias in their vainglory. Not just the hapless congresswoemyn, but the cadre of WH press corps.
    Instead of quietly ruminating over the remarkable press conference they had just witnessed, they chose to shout out such brilliances as “does he feel responsible??” Female voices, always, even if some are male. Pathetic.

  • Casey Klahn October 19, 2017, 11:25 PM

    Bullshit! The CNN video has tech blips of some kind, and at @6:30 on the tape, they somehow disappear the part where GEN Kelly’s voice breaks with emotion. CNN is bullshit news and here you have that again. Who has tech break-ups with video these days? Did they buy their cameras from Al Jaz in a going out of business sale?
    Congresswoman Cowboy Hat is going to get her verbal come-uppance from someone in the military, and that will make very good video.
    BTW, one thing I learned first hand in the military is that a fresh-grieving mother of a deceased service member (I will add spouse to this) must not be interviewed for data. They haven’t got data; they have raw nerves and emotions. Yes, they received data, but the transmission of same is unavailable from them to you.

  • tim October 20, 2017, 5:47 AM

    Refuse to participate in their vulgarity. As J.J. says above, there are millions of us who are doing just that.
    Turn your TV off, don’t watch the news, screw Tweeter and social media, turn your back on Hollywood the NFL and any other vile, insulting company/industry that doesn’t share the sacredness of what made this country so great.

    If not, you are simply paying them to shit on you. Be the solution.

  • Jim October 20, 2017, 6:26 AM

    That one particular Congresswoman bears a universal exception to the proscription against the act of a gentleman striking a lady.

    I think in her case, that a gentleman would be honor bound to strike her, indeed. That, and the fact that she is no lady. Certainly, not according to any of the Codes of Chivalry upon which a polite society might be ordered.

    “….but yer Honor, the bitch NEEDED slappin!”

    Jim
    Sunk New Dawn
    Galveston, TX

  • Butch October 20, 2017, 8:36 AM

    Jewel – In her district, it did make her a rock star to her constituents.

    And now she claims the empty barrel analogy is RAYCISSSSSSSS!

    Joy Reid (spit) and Lawrence O’Donnel (spit) are calling Kelly racist because he was born and raised in Southie.

  • Sam L. October 20, 2017, 8:54 AM

    Why is it that Dems have no class?

  • Terry October 20, 2017, 10:00 AM

    Why is that the family and congress creep are not angry with the people who killed their bro? Could it be the 70 IQ in play?

  • Eskyman October 20, 2017, 1:53 PM

    She is a disgrace to humanity, and is the perfect example of the stereotype: she is stupid, black, and a racist.

    We’re never going to get rid of the “N-word,” as long as that word perfectly describes someone like her.

  • ghostsniper October 20, 2017, 2:44 PM

    I’m getting this info 2nd hand cause I don’t normally expose myself to the incessant garbage.
    My understanding is that the female negro politicians beef is that Trump supposedly said something like “the dead soldier knew what he signed up for”. Her retort was that he did not know it.

    Now let me clarify. It has been almost 40 years since I was in the army but there was no mistaking the overt message to all of us in combat arms units that we were soldiers first and everything else last. We were taught and trained continuously for that purpose so how is it possible for a soldier to be in a hostile position and not know that? It’s not, and she is wrong.

    The thing negro’s do best is run their yaps wide open all the time and the females do it the most. Terry is probably right.

  • Casey Klahn October 20, 2017, 2:54 PM

    idc if Trump called to grab the widow’s/pussy. Congresswoman Cowboy Hat is out of bounds in politicizing the death of this soldier.

    What Trump said don’t come into it.

  • Casey Klahn October 20, 2017, 2:55 PM

    Congresswoman Cowboy Hat is out of bounds in politicizing the death of this soldier.

    What Trump said don’t come into it.

  • indyjonesouthere October 20, 2017, 4:40 PM

    I have a television but it is used to watch music and movie dvd’s and some movies and weather over Netflix, etc. I refuse to watch broadcast TV anymore as even the most mundane programs have become nothing more than clickbait. All of TV has sunk to the level of Kardashian world or NFL world and I won’t bother to even click the remote. May the rotted Marxist culture slowly slide into bankruptcy as its only usefulness is as compost.

  • Suburbanbanshee October 20, 2017, 5:00 PM

    It has nothing to do with color, and it has nothing to do with IQ. There are plenty of people who are severely mentally handicapped who would have said something classy and kind. There are plenty of people of every color and heritage who are comforters of those who grieve.

    It has everything to do with being an SJW, and with trading your heart for a worthless load of BS.

  • Howard Nelsone October 22, 2017, 8:32 AM

    Remembering.
    Ballad of the Green Berets, at John Jay Ray’s site
    http://dissectleft.blogspot.com for 10-23-17 (Australia)