One of the Marine Corps' most admired generals in recent memory has taken the reins at the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.

Retired Gen. John Kelly will lead the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation as it completes construction of the final phase of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, according to a news release from the group says. Kelly has served as the foundation's chairman of the board of directors since April, according to the release. said foundation spokesman Dan Gregory. The Marine Corps Heritage Foundation formally announced on Tuesday that Kelly will lead it as it completes construction of the final phase of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, according to a news release from the group says.

"The museum belongs to Marines and our Navy docs that served with us over the years," Kelly told Marine Corps Times. "They own the legend and in our estimation, they own the museum. It is also owned by the American public."

Slated to be completed next year, the museum's new wing will focus on Iraq and Afghanistan, Kelly said.

"What we'll try to do as the current construction project nears completion is to start looking at ways to bring the museum to people that don't normally get to Washington, D.C.," he said. "Certainly, we encourage everyone, every American, to visit it, but how do you, in a sense, bring the museum and what it stands for to people that are in Seattle and Iowa and Bangor, Maine?"

The foundation is considering other construction projects for the museum, but they are "too new to even think about," Kelly said.

"Gen. Kelly understands more than most the service and sacrifice of today’s Marines, making him the most fitting person to take charge as the Foundation works to ensure Marines from 1976 through today have permanent galleries telling their stories in the National Museum of the Marine Corps," retired Lt. Gen. Robert Blackburn Blackman Jr., the foundation’s president and CEO, said in the news release.

Kelly's career in the Marine Corps spanned more than 40 years, during which he played a central role in turning the tide against al-Qaida in western Iraq and later became the senior military adviser to then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the head of U.S. Southern Command.

He enlisted as an infantry Marine during the Vietnam War, rising to the rank of sergeant before he left active duty in 1972 to attend college. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1976 after graduating from the University of Massachusetts.

When Kelly retired as head of SOUTHCOM in January, former Rep. Congressman Duncan L. Hunter said the U.S. had "lost a valuable asset," calling Kelly an "old hand."

"As mentioned in my book, when the opportunity to slaughter defeated Iraqi soldiers arose, Kelly instructed his officers that the mission was to take Baghdad, not 'kill a lot of mothers' sons,'" Hunter wrote for Military Times in February. "Sent north with Task Force Tripoli after Baghdad's fall to receive the surrender of senior Iraqi officers, Kelly responded to an Iraqi general's surrender of his pistol by giving the surprised Iraqi his own pistol. 'The war is over' was Kelly's message. 'Time to rebuild.'"

Kelly knows the costs of war all too well. His two sons, John and Robert, also both joined the Marine Corps. Then in November 2010, 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, who served in the 5th Marine Regiment, was killed in Afghanistan. The elder Kelly was notified of his son’s death by Gen. Joseph Dunford, who is currently serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Since the loss of his son, Kelly has sought to comfort the friends and loved ones of fallen Marines, and he's been an outspoken advocate for treating veterans of the current wars with the same respect as all other those who fought in all other conflicts.

His speeches about dealing with loss and the need to defeat America's enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan have serves as source of inspiration both within and beyond the Marine Corps.

In June 2013, Kelly spoke at the dedication ceremony for the 5th Marine Regiment's Afghanistan war memorial. He said he questioned whether any war was noble enough to justify his son's sacrifice.

"I realized the question was not mine to ask or to answer," Kelly said. "It didn't matter what I thought. Only what he thought. The answer was his to give. He gave it by his actions that day, by the entire life that brought him to the instant he was lost.

"That is the answer to all of my questions. I need nothing else."

Share:
In Other News
Load More