Four-star Marine Gen. John F. Kelly said in a speech he delivered Saturday that millennial Marines have shunned the culture of self absorption embraced by the majority of Americans , the Washington Times reports.
Gen. Kelly said this difference is a major reason for the "growing schism in America between a population who has never served and the relatively few who want to," according to the Washington Times.
"This is not a criticism, but those with less of a sense of service to the nation will never understand it when men and women of character step forward and look danger and adversity straight in the eye, and refuse to blink or give ground even to their own deaths," said Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, a former enlisted man who rose to the armed forces’ rarefied air as head of U.S. Southern Command.
"The protected can’t begin to understand the price paid so they and their families can sleep safe and free at night. What they are missing, what they will also never understand, is the sense of commitment, joy, and honor of serving one’s country in uniform," Gen. Kelly said Saturday at the New York City Leatherneck Celebration Ball.