By choosing retired Marine General John Kelly to serve as Homeland Security Secretary, President-elect Donald Trump appears to be assembling a ‘Band of Brothers’ rather than a ‘Team of Rivals,’ the model used by President Obama to form his first cabinet.
Kelly is the highest ranking military officer to have a child killed in combat.
Four days after his son was killed, he delivered an emotional speech in St. Louis to the Semper Fi Society, a speech that has become iconic within the military and among military families. He called out the fact that so few families serve and so few are protecting so many.