if there is a wife, this is happening in two different places. if the parents are divorced, three different places. 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 interment. that s what happened. who are the best young men and women? they re the best 1% this country produces. most of you as americans don t know them. many of you don t know anyone that knows any one of them. but they re the very best that this country produces. they volunteer to protect our country when there s nothing in our country anymore that seems to suggest that sevenless service to the nation is not only appropriate but required. that s all right. who writes letters to the families?
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. but 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, kell, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. he knew what he was getting into by joining that 1%. he knew what the possibilities were because we re at war. and when he died, and the four cases we re talking about, niger, in my son s case, afghanistan, when he died he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. that s what the president tried
he shared his condolences, his wife was with him. i felt blessed to meet him, under the circumstances wasn t the greatest. but he made a point to be there and spoke to me in a genuine caring manner and it was very very nice. i was honored to have been able to have met him. its helped? oh yeah. absolutely. having him there he didn t have to be there, he didn t but he was and it truly truly meant a lot to me. i understand you were told that the president was going to call and that you should wait by the phone or have the phone with you at all times. is that right? yes, so i was meeting with my casualty officer at the time. we were at starbucks, he bolted it out and i remember he came back it was the white house and they were letting him know the president was planning on reaching out sharing his
answer, wife. and if there is a wife, this is happening in two different places, if the parents are divorced, three different places. and if the casualty officer proceeds to break the heart of a family member. and stays with that family until, well far long, long time. even after the entournament. so that s what happens. i mean, the casualty officer proceeds to break the heart of the family member. this is spoken by somebody who has experienced those conversations on both sides, spider. and jake, you pray that it s done with a level of professionalism as described by john kelly. and i would suggest to everyone that it is. these this is a sacred duty when you become a next of kin
made to the next of kin only if the next of kin agrees to take the phone call. sometimes they do. a precall is made the president of the united states or someone would like to call. will you accepted. typically they accept the call. so he called four people yesterday and expressed his condolences the best way he could. 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. let me tell you what i tell them. let me tell you what my best friend joe dunford told me. 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