Mattis delivers a message to local veterans

Veterans should take pride in their service and work to make their communities better places, U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Saturday morning.

The Richland native spoke to a room full of veterans about the lessons of combat, and fielded questions about transitioning to civilian life after military service. The event was sponsored by the Columbia Basin Veterans Opportunity Center and the Columbia Basin College VETS Center.

Mattis retired as a Marine Corps general in 2013. He told the crowd that one of the main concerns now is to make sure the military leaders do not let down the veterans who put their lives on the line for their country.

He emphasized that veterans earned the knowledge that they had seen the worst life had to offer when they participated in those battles.

"You'll never question whether you lived a life worth living," he said. "We have learned that nothing can stop our spirit unless we ignore Lincoln's call and ignore our better angels."

He urged the veterans to share their experience with the larger culture, saying America is too large for divisions between people.

Mattis fielded roughly an hours worth of questions from audience members including people asking what changes the military is making in helping soldiers transition back to civilian life.

Each military branch is developing a course to help soldiers transition. He urges all of the veterans to help enlighten the larger community about how the military helped shape their character.

"I think it's about all of us pulling together," he said. "That's one of the reasons I want the veterans to share all of the good things."

He also praised the work of veterans organizations that helped guide people to education.

Another person questioned what the department was doing to help curb suicide rates.

He told the crowd he never understood how the guys who survived war would consider killing themselves.

"I realized that when you're young passions run right on the surface," he said. "There are a lot of things that worry me about whether or not we have the connections in our society any more."

Mattis said lessons learned by the veterans of the past have been carried forward.

"No young troop today will wonder if he can handle something," he said. "He'll look at it and say, 'If you listen to your NCOs and your officers do their homework and put it together, there is nothing worse than Khe Sanh, there's nothing worse than Chosin, there's nothing worse than Bouganville."

Since the founding of the country, he said, soldiers have delivered America's message to facists in World War II, communists during the Korean and Vietnam wars, and jihadists in the most recent wars.

This story was originally published May 5, 2018 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Mattis delivers a message to local veterans."