Trump picks retired combat leader for Homeland Security

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head Homeland Security is a blunt-talking retired Marine general who would become part of a small but influential team of former military officers with powerful influence over security policy in the next administration.

John Kelly is a widely respected combat leader who served as an enlisted Marine before becoming an officer and retiring this year after more than 40 years in the service.

“There could be no better choice,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a Marine who served in Iraq. “Marines get stuff done.”

Kelly, 66, is the third retired general and second Marine picked by Trump for top-level administration positions. Trump also chose Jim Mattis, a retired Marine four-star general, to be Defense secretary and retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn as national security adviser.

During the campaign, Trump suggested that President Obama had suppressed advice from top military commanders. Now the president-elect appears to be drawing on some of those overlooked leaders.

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Trump has said he wanted to overhaul the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State and has spoken favorably of iconic World War II commanders George Patton and Douglas MacArthur.

Kelly and Mattis, along with Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, currently chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, served together in the 2003 Iraq invasion, an experience that drew the men close and helped shaped their views as they rose to top military positions.

Trump appears to be seeking men with combat experience who understand the resolve needed to defeat an enemy on the battlefield. Kelly would replace Jeh Johnson, a lawyer who has served in top government positions, as secretary of Homeland Security.

Those who know Mattis and Kelly say they are thoughtful strategists aware of the limits of military power.

“Words like ‘won’ or ‘victory’ really do not apply when speaking of counterinsurgency operations,” Kelly wrote in an official Marine Corps history. “Insurgencies grow from problems and discontent within a given society.”

Returning to Iraq in 2008, Kelly developed close bonds with tribal sheiks in western Iraq where Marines were based, helping win support for coalition efforts there. “He left a lasting impression” on the sheiks, said Sterling Jensen, a civilian who worked on the staff of the I Marine Expeditionary Force there.

As head of U.S. Southern Command for three years until he retired, Kelly developed relationships throughout Latin America. "He is a strategist," said Juan Carlos Pinzón, the Colombian ambassador to the United States and his country's former defense minister.

Pinzon said Kelly built partnerships with countries in the region but never dictated the terms of relationships. "He was very helpful to us," Pinzon said.

Mattis and Kelly have reputations for their blunt talk.

Hunter said Kelly “crossed” the Obama administration over closing Guantanamo Bay, the military detention center in Cuba, and opening the Marine Corps infantry to women. The Obama administration wants to transfer the detainees in Guantanamo and close the facility.

While at Southern Command, which oversees the base, Kelly defended conditions at the facility, saying detainees received excellent medical care and were treated humanely.

He also argued that the remaining detainees at the facility were dangerous. "Every one has real, no-kidding intelligence on them that brought them there,” he told Military Times in an interview. "There are no innocent men down there."

Kelly, a longtime infantryman or “grunt,” expressed worries about opening the infantry to women. The Marine Corps requested a waiver last year to the administration's policy, citing a study that showed the inclusion of women could reduce combat effectiveness. Defense Secretary Ash Carter denied the waiver.

“Does it make us more lethal? If the answer to that is … yes, then do it,” Kelly told reporters earlier this year. “If the answer to that is no, clearly don't do it.”

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The Boston native has a strong affinity for the Marines in his charge. Kelly is “heartfelt and emotional,” said Jim Howcroft, a retired Marine intelligence officer who served with him.

Kelly knows firsthand the cost of sending Americans into battle. In 2010, Kelly’s son, 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, 29, was killed in action while leading a platoon of Marines in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

In a Memorial Day speech in New York last year, he spoke about the impact of his son’s death, saying he struggled with the question of whether the sacrifice was worth it. He said the answer came to him at Arlington National Cemetery when burying his son.

"It didn't matter what I thought," Kelly said. "It doesn't matter what the living think."

"He had decided it was ... important to be where he was that morning in the Sangin River Valley, Afghanistan, to be doing what he was doing that morning with his Marines and his Navy docs that he loved so much and led so well," Kelly said.

"Was it worth his life?" Kelly asked. "It's not for me to say."