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<\/p>\nWashington, DC…Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said his recent presence at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, is an example of how Americans can help bridge political gaps. Mattis told CBS reporter John Dickerson today on Face the Nation that the 900-plus new Army officers who commissioned there this week come from all over the United States and probably represent every aspect of American life. \u201cThese people come together with an enthusiasm for protecting this experiment in democracy that we call America,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it takes people, I believe, with a fundamental respect for one another, with a fundamental friendliness toward one another, that I worry is starting to slip away in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis enters Michie Stadium before delivering the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., May 27, 2017. U.S Army photo by Staff Sgt. Vito T. Bryant<\/p>\n
Within the military, there is still that fundamental friendliness, the secretary said. \u201cIt\u2019s a diverse force, it\u2019s a force that can work together under the worst conditions,\u201d he said. \u201cI just hope we can find our way back to engaging with one another, arguing strongly with one another, and then going down and having a root beer together or something, and having a good laugh about it as we work together for the best interests of the next generation of Americans who are going to inherit this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
A ‘Humbling’ Life of Service<\/p>\n
Mattis enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1969 and was commissioned in 1972. He retired from the Marine Corps as a four-star general in 2013. President Donald J. Trump nominated him to be defense secretary and he took office on January 20.<\/p>\n
With more than 40 years of military service, the secretary said it is still humbling to be defense secretary. \u201cIt\u2019s humbling, to tell you the truth, because as you go up, you realize how little \u2013 other than exercise good judgment \u2013 you really do,\u201d he told Dickerson. \u201cThat it falls on the shoulders of very, very young people to carry this out inside the Department of Defense.”<\/p>\n
Mattis served as an infantry officer. \u201cThe infantry are named because they\u2019re young, infant soldiers, young soldiers how they got their name,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re very young.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so it\u2019s really a humbling sense of just how great our younger generation is, how selfless it is, and what they are willing to commit \u2013 basically signing a blank check payable to the American people with their very lives to protect it. That’s really what I’ve come away from this job with is a deeper sense of just being humbled by the commitment of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC…Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said his recent presence at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, is an example of how Americans can help bridge political gaps. Mattis told CBS reporter John Dickerson today on Face the Nation that the 900-plus new Army officers who commissioned there this week come from all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-life-style","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170527-D-XT155-006.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}