Lt. Gen. John Kelly on Veteran’s Day 2010: A speech for the ages

Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, who would later become President Trump's White House chief of staff, had every reason to express devastation when he delivered a Veterans Day address to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis in Missouri on Nov. 13, 2010. Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, had died four days earlier, killed by a buried improvised explosive device as he crossed an irrigation ditch in Afghanistan’s Sangin District, in restive Helmand Province.

A consummate warrior, Kelly did not succumb to his grief but rallied the troops.

Nine years later, Kelly’s words remain an important reminder of the myriad reasons we have to celebrate the men and women who so selflessly serve our great nation.

In early 2010, 30,000 surge forces had been inserted into Afghanistan, where they found themselves in a hard battle to procure a victorious end to a nine-year war.

During the previous year, 2,139 Americans had been wounded in Afghanistan. By July 3, 2010, the total of wounded Americans already stood at 2,000. The remainder of 2010 would be no less bloody.

Kelly’s battalion, the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment (3/5), had taken over the Sangin battlespace in early October. The 3/5’s predecessor, 3/7, had lost five Marines, with an additional 150 Marines wounded, during their deployment.

By Nov. 10, 15 Marines from 3/5’s 800-man battalion had been killed, with an additional “40 amputations and over 70 others wounded,” as Bing West describes in One Million Steps, about 3/5’s time in Sangin. At the end of a seven-month deployment, 3/5’s losses would stand at 25 Marines dead and over 200 wounded.

In both Sangin and nearby Marjah District, 15 Marines from 2/9 lost their lives between July 2010 and January 2011. Others, including Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipient Kyle Carpenter and his friend Nick Eufrazio, were severely wounded.