Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, this afternoon I would like to honor and recognize the important service of three men, three Marine generals who have served their country in uniform and who have served their country in the civilian world as well, who have served with honor and dignity in ways that I think deserve recognition on the floor of the U.S. Senate. They have done this service in a manner that is befitting of marines, with dignity, class, and honor. I am talking about former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, former Secretary of Homeland Security and the President's Chief of Staff at the White House, Gen. John Kelly, and, lastly, I would like to recognize Gen. Joe Dunford, who, on Monday, will be stepping down as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

I intend to be there to honor him and to witness another remarkable transition of authority and power when U.S. Army General Milley takes over in what is the most important position for a military officer in the United States of America.

It will be the end of an era, a remarkable era, for the Marine Corps--the smallest of the military services, where these three Marine generals--Kelly, Mattis, and Dunford--served with distinction, not only in the Corps as four star generals but at the highest levels of government at a critical time in our country's history.

It is a remarkable story. It is a story of service, sacrifice, and friendship. These extraordinary men rose through the levels of command together and the ranks of the Marine Corps together. They served together all over the world, including in combat in places like Fallujah, Al Kut, and Baghdad. They fought together, and they sacrificed together for our great Nation as Marine Corps officers. They then went on to serve in other ways.

The three of them have spent their whole lives in service to our country, and they have left an indelible mark, certainly, on the Marine Corps but, I believe, other institutions.

Between the three of them, they have 130 years of Active-Duty military service to America--130 years. Think about that: 130 years of Active military service to the United States of America and the Marine Corps.

They have given their all for us in a way that I think makes most Americans proud, emphasizing the ethos of the Marine Corps, which is honor, courage, and commitment, and I know they have inspired countless numbers of young men and young women across the globe in the Marines and beyond.

I am going to talk a little bit about them today.

Gen. John Kelly is a straight-talking, blunt, and fierce warrior. Before he was 16, he hitchhiked to the west coast and rode the rails back. He is then said to have joined the Merchant Marine for a year, where he is quoted as saying: ``My first time overseas was taking 10,000 tons of beer to Vietnam.''

In 1970, he enlisted in the Marines, where he found purpose and found a home.

Gen. Jim Mattis is a warrior, scholar, appreciator of mavericks, known for the reading lists he expects his marines to follow, who as a teenager was ``a mediocre student with a partying attitude''--an attitude that landed him in jail a few times. But learning called, and then the marines called, teaching him and others how to ``think like men of action, and to act like men of thought.'' He is a legend in the Marine Corps. His motto in Iraq, when he led the forces there, was: ``No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy than a U.S. Marine.'' He is the first and only marine to ever be Secretary of Defense.

Then there is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joe Dunford, who has had the Marine Corps flowing through his veins his whole life. His father served as a marine in Korea, and three of his uncles were marines in World War II. General Dunford had no doubt that he would continue that tradition.

While earning a degree from Saint Michael's College in Vermont, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. During his career, from infantry commander to Commandant of the Marine Corps and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he has been known for inspiring respect in combat and on the field of battle and in the corridors of Washington.

I had a brief opportunity to meet General Dunford a few times as a marine when I was in Afghanistan and he was the ISAF commander. The respect that not only marines and American servicemembers but all the allied forces there had for him was very, very apparent.

All three, as I mentioned, served in Iraq. In 2003, General Kelly was promoted to brigadier general and was the first known promotion of a Marine Corps colonel to brigadier general in an active combat zone since Chesty Puller in January of 1951. General Dunford, serving under General Mattis during the invasion, earned his own nickname of ``Fighting Joe,'' which continued to serve him well in Washington.

So as you just saw from my colleague, the Senator from Ohio--there has been much talk today on the floor of the Senate from both sides of the aisle about character, integrity, patriotism, or, unfortunately, the lack thereof in Washington, DC, in the House and the Senate, throwing bombs at each other. But I think sometimes it is important to come down and talk about the other things--character, honor, integrity, service--because we have a lot of that as well. These three men have served our country with great distinction. They have all been succeeded by strong leaders who I am sure will carry out a similar tradition of service and dignity.

Last year, I had the great honor of being promoted to colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves. I love being in this job. It is a huge privilege to serve the people of Alaska as a U.S. Senator. But I have no doubt that the biggest honor in my life is earning the title of U.S. marine. I knew that I joined a force for good, with cords of memory and valor that stretch back to before the founding of our country. The battles that the Corps has fought in live in the heart of every marine: Montezuma, Tripoli, Belleau Wood, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir, Inchon, Khe Sanh, the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The list is very long.

The greatest lesson I have learned as a marine is what true leadership looks like, and we have seen that true leadership in the trio of officers of Kelly, Mattis, and Dunford, and I have seen it in their lives after the Marine Corps in Washington, DC. Let me talk briefly about each of them.

From his early days commanding a rifle company and serving on two aircraft carriers to commanding Task Force Tripoli during the Iraq war and leading U.S. Southern Command, General Kelly exemplified the warrior ethos of the Marine Corps.

During the early days of Task Force Tripoli, then-Major General Kelly was asked about the ability of his force to handle the Iraqi military. His response was, ``Hell, these are marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima.'' He had confidence, and he was right.

General Kelly is a fighter, but he also understands sacrifice. He lost troops in the field, and tragically, in 2010, he lost his own son, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, when he stepped on an IED while leading a platoon in Afghanistan. General Kelly knows sacrifice. He became the highest ranking military officer to lose his son or daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan.

After he finished his military service with distinction, he took on two of the most challenging jobs here in DC: Secretary of Homeland Security and then the Chief of Staff at the White House. He didn't seek these jobs; he was asked to serve by the President, and he did. That is something unusual in a time where so many are crawling or scheming to climb up the ladder. It is refreshing to have leaders who are sought out or chosen to lead.

It should be noted that the jobs that General Kelly took on demanded a different skill set after he took off the uniform. However, on a daily basis, in these jobs, you still take incoming; it is just not with bullets and artillery. In my view, he did an outstanding job in these two very important positions at a critical time.

Then there is General Mattis, who became our Secretary of Defense. He also did not seek that job; that job sought him. I know this for a fact because, before the election, I had the privilege of sitting down with General Mattis when he was a scholar at the Hoover Institution. I talked to him about leadership and strategy. It was a big honor for me to be able to do that in October 2016.

After the election in November of 2016, when the rumors began swirling about his being the Secretary of Defense, my first phone call to the President-elect to congratulate him also mentioned how I thought it would be a great pick to pick General Mattis as Secretary of Defense.

I believe he did an excellent job. General Mattis, as the first and only marine to ever be Secretary of Defense, played a pivotal role in redefining our national security objectives and rebuilding our military. General Mattis played a leading role in crafting the National Security Strategy with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster in 2017 and then literally wrote almost entirely on his own the Pentagon's 2018 National Defense Strategy. Together, these two documents have shifted our Nation's strategic focus from countering violent extremism, as we needed to do after the September 11 terrorist attacks, to recognizing the return of great power competition as the leading national security challenge for the United States, with China as the pacing threat.

It is rarely recognized by the media, but these are very bipartisan documents in that Senators--Democrats and Republicans--all believe these are very, very important. They are almost universally applauded and supported in terms of American strategy for the next several decades.

General Mattis recently published a memoir, ``Call Sign Chaos,'' that centers on leadership and the need to sharpen the mind and the body. I think this book, which I am reading right now, is a great service to our country. ``You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force,'' he tells his marines. ``Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.''

Indeed, much has been written about General Mattis's keen intellect, but, as he makes clear, reading and intellectual pursuits are not an end to themselves. They are part of the mission. They are at the heart of shaping the world's most fearsome fighting force.

In his book, he says: ``If you haven't read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate--you can't coach and you can't lead.''

I also believe that General Mattis/Secretary Mattis did an outstanding job as Secretary of Defense. He rebuilt our military readiness, which had plummeted when defense spending was cut 25 percent from 2010 to 2015. I have walked with General Mattis/Secretary Mattis in Alaska with our military forces there, and I can tell you the troops loved him and respected him.

Finally, I want to talk about General Dunford. As I mentioned, Monday will be the last day we get to call Dunford America's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He is the second marine to hold this highest leadership position in the armed services. Also a student of history, he is known to be fearless and an unflappable commander.

General Mattis told a great story about how when they were serving together in Iraq--Dunford and Mattis--General Mattis watched a rocket- propelled grenade fly over Dunford's humvee and blow up about 100 yards behind him. Mattis wrote: ``He [Dunford] barely glanced up and then went right back to writing his orders.''

In his book, General Mattis talks more about General Dunford. He said:

He had a gift of synthesis; he could coolly evaluate the larger picture. Joe reminded me of Emperor Justinian, consistently reaching fair conclusions and able to summarize a complex situation in a few words.

It has been precisely this ability that has allowed General Dunford to so effectively navigate the tricky, political, and military worlds in both this administration and the last one. He was nominated to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs by President Obama and did such an outstanding job that President Trump renominated him.

These are the kinds of men and leaders I am talking about, and these are not easy times. Our country and our military are facing unprecedented challenges, and wise counsel from those in these positions is paramount--those who understand what it means to fight, what it means to be on the frontlines of conflict, and what it means to have the wisdom sometimes not to fight. General Dunford has provided that wisdom.

Harlan Ullman, a combat veteran and a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was recently quoted in an article about General Dunford where he said: He has been one of the best Joint Chiefs of Staff America has ever had.

According to Ullman, Dunford has been able to successfully navigate difficult times with regard to national security and challenges to our Nation in civil and military relations.

With all the other challenges this country has to face, it is important to recognize these kinds of leaders.

I also want to mention how General Dunford is known not only for his keen intellect but also for his compassion. He was known to personally write letters to the parents of his marines who were killed in action. He was the person who went to General Kelly's home to tell him that his own son had been killed in battle in Afghanistan, and later, he wore a Team Kelly shirt when he ran the Boston Marathon.

I have seen that personal compassion in my own life. It is a story I will end with with regard to all three of these men, and it involves a young lance corporal from Alaska named Grant Fraser.

Who is Grant Fraser? In high school in Anchorage, he was an actor who loved the works of Homer and Shakespeare. He was a mountain biker, a skier, a pianist, a scuba diver, a rock climber, a tennis player, a lighthearted, mischievous young man, and then he surprised family and friends when he joined the Marines. While still in college, because he wanted challenges and he knew he would thrive in the Marine Corps--and he did thrive in the Marine Corps--he planned on coming back home to work as a paramedic with the Anchorage Fire Department.

On August 3, 2005, in Anbar Province, Iraq, Grant Fraser was on a mission--Operation Quick Strike--to avenge the killing of his fellow marines when his vehicle was hit by a massive improvised explosive device. He was 22 years old when he made the ultimate sacrifice.

I love our military, but sometimes it can be bureaucratic and very boneheaded. It took 11 long years and the tenacious, beautiful spirit of Grant Fraser's mom, Sharon Long, for this young marine to get a proper burial at Arlington Cemetery.

Two days before the funeral in 2016, I was sitting next to General Dunford at a dinner. I told him about Grant's heroism and Sharon Long's heroic perseverance to get her son buried at Arlington.

On an overcast day, September 30, 2016, as friends, family, and fellow marines were gathering to put Grant Fraser to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, a marine four-star general in his dress blues appeared solemnly on the sidelines. The most important member of the U.S. military decided to move his schedule and come to the funeral of this lance corporal.

I had the opportunity to introduce him to Sharon Long. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs told me that he couldn't sleep the night before, thinking about how long it took for her to bury her son, and he felt that he just had to attend to pay his respects to this marine.

I have been to a lot of funerals in my Marine Corps career, but this was the most moving funeral I ever attended. It was moving because on that day, rank didn't matter and medals didn't matter; we were all just Americans--with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--grieving the loss of one of our own.

General Mattis wrote, ``No Marine is ever alone--he carries with him the spirit passed on from generations before him. Group spirit--that electric force field of emotion--infuses and binds warriors together.''

These three men--Mattis, Kelly, and Dunford--have brought that spirit, that higher calling, not just to the Marine Corps but to America and the highest levels of government, and we should all be thankful.

We in the Senate confirm these men and women on a regular basis-- people willing to serve their country--but we rarely thank them on the floor. So from one U.S. Senator who has watched the careers of these remarkable three men closely and appreciates what they have done, not just in uniform but after they have taken off the uniform, I want to thank them for their honor, courage, commitment, sacrifice, and example to thousands if not millions of Americans and marines and for keeping us safe.

So to Generals Mattis, Kelly, and Dunford, thank you. Semper Fidelis.

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