The Patriot Post® · The General's Goodbye

As I get older, perhaps my sentiment grows. Maybe it is because the flowers smell sweeter, or perhaps ice water tastes better, but at a time I once suspected my senses might become dulled, I am now aware the ones that matter most to me are wonderfully better refined.

So step with me to a sweltering parade ground in Washington D.C., where one of the greatest warriors our country has ever known finally ended a spectacular career of service to America. I speak of U.S. Army General Stanley McCrystal, who was fallen not by an enemy’s bullet but by an unguarded, after-hours conversation in a Paris hotel.

Because of a crazy volcano that no one can pronounce in faraway Iceland, his flight had been cancelled until the next day and, as he shared drinks with joking comrades, there was a freelance writer among those in the room. The writer sold his story to Rolling Stone magazine. The General’s remarks, once public, were insubordination and – bingo – the country had its biggest casualty in modern-day warfare.

So with the heavy heart of the nation watching and Secretary Of Defense Robert M. Gates, Army Chief Of Staff General George W. Casey and about 400 warriors standing silent, his closing remarks became his most eloquent.

Sadly, we get our news at a time when networks promise they can take us “around the world in 60 seconds.” If it can’t be done in a 30-second sound bite then they would rather show a commercial. I believe the best part of his talk was omitted in virtually all accounts I have read so let me now go to the “official transcript” in hopes you will read it and weep with me.

The General had thanked his country, his officers and his men. He saved the best for last. We’ll pick up his remarks as he finally turns and looks at his wife:

Annie’s here tonight.  No doubt she walked the 50 feet from our front door in cute little Italian shoes of which we have an extensive collection.  (Laughter.)  In Afghanistan, I once considered using Annie’s shoe purchases as an argument to get Italy to send additional forces.  (Laughter.)  But truth be known, I have no control over that part of the McChrystal economy.  (Laughter.)

But she’s here like she’s always been there when it mattered. Always gorgeous. For three and a half years, she was my girlfriend then fiancée and, for over 33 years, she’s been my wife.

For many years, I’ve joked, sometimes publicly, about her lousy cooking, terrifying closets, demolition derby driving and addiction to M&M candy, which is all true. But as we conclude a career together, it’s important for you to know she was there.

She was there when my father commissioned me a second lieutenant of infantry and was waiting some months later when I emerged from Ranger School. Together, we moved all we owned in my used Chevrolet Vega to our first apartment at Fort Bragg. The move, with our first days in our $180-a-month apartment, was the only honeymoon I was able to give her, a fact she has mentioned a few times since.

Annie always knew what to do. She was gracious when she answered the door at midnight in her nightgown to fight Sergeant Emo Holtz, a huge mortarman, carrying a grocery bag of cheap liquor for a platoon party I’d hastily coordinated that evening and not told Annie about following a Friday night jump. I got home not long after to find Annie making food for assembling paratroopers. Intuitively, Annie knew what was right and quietly did it.

With 9/11, she saw us off to war and patiently supported the families of our fallen with stoic grace. As the years passed and the fight grew ever more difficult and deadly, Annie’s quiet courage gave me strength I would never otherwise have found.

It’s an axiom in the Army that soldiers write the checks but families pay the bills. And war increases both the accuracy of that statement and the cost families pay.

In a novel based on history, Steven Pressfield captured poignantly just how important families were and, I believe, are today. Facing an invading Persian army under King Xerxes, a coalition of Greek states sent a small force to buy time by defending the pass at Thermopylae and were led by 300 special, selected Spartans. The mission was desperate and death for the 300 certain.

Before he left to lead them, the Spartan king, Leonidas, explained to one of the Spartan wives how he had selected the 300 from an entire army famed for its professionalism, courage and dedication to duty.

(The General quotes Leonidas:)“I chose them not for their valor, lady, but for that of their women. Greece stands now upon her most perilous hour. If she saves herself, it will not be at the gates. Death alone awaits us and our allies there but later in battles yet to come by land and sea.

"Then Greece, if the gods will it, will preserve herself. Do you understand this, lady?  Well, now, listen, when the battle is over, when the 300 have gone to death, then all Greece will look to the Spartans to see how they bear it. But who, lady, will the Spartans look to? To you. To you and the other wives and mothers, sisters and daughters of the fallen.

"If they behold your hearts riven and broken with grief, they too will break and Greece will break with them. But if you bear up, dry eyed, not alone enduring your loss but seizing it with contempt for its agony and embracing it as the honor that it is in truth, then Sparta will stand and all Greece will stand behind her.

"Why have I nominated you, lady, to bear up beneath this most terrible of trials, you and your sisters of the 300? Because you can.” (Leonidas quote ends)

To all who wear no uniform but give so much, sacrifice so willingly and serve as such an example to our nation and each other, my thanks.

As I leave the Army, to those with responsibility to carry on, I’d say, service in this business is tough and often dangerous. It extracts a price for participation, and that price can be high.

It is tempting to protect yourself from the personal or professional costs of loss by limiting how much you commit, how much of belief and trust in people, and how deeply you care. Caution and cynicism are safe, but soldiers don’t want to follow cautious cynics. They follow leaders who believe enough to risk failure or disappointment for a worthy cause.

If I had it to do over again, I’d do some things in my career differently but not many. I believed in people, and I still believe in them. I trusted and I still trust. I cared and I still care. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Winston Churchill said we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. To the young leaders of today and tomorrow, it’s a great life. Thank you.“ (Applause.)

My goodness. Oh, my goodness. Thank you, too, General McCrystal.