Coming up on cspan, colin powell and Sam Mcchrystal talk about how veterans are treated when they return from war. Following that, a discussion with Supreme CourtJustice Anthony kennedy. And then a look at Marriage Equality and voters approval of the initiatives on the balance this Election Year ballots this year. With soldiers on guard outside the Customs House and outside the homes of crown officials and with British Artillery now aimed at the house, it is easy to understand why many bostonian felt threatened. Soldiers tried to stir up racial tension. Of course, not everyone in boston is white. Within a month of their arrival, three british officers are discovered encouraging African American slaves in boston to attack their white masters. One of those drunken officers assured the black bostonians that the soldiers had come to procure their freedom. With their help, they should be able to drive the liberty boys to the devil. The british army is not in boston to free the slaves. Several white residents lodge complaints. Captain wilson and his friends had engaged in a dangerous act to foment slave dissatisfaction. A discussion on how veterans are treated when returning from war. We will hear from paul and general stanley mcchrystal, former commander of troops in colon powell and general stanley mcchrystal. This is about an houranda half. [applause] thank you for being here. This is a marvelous idea. There is an appetite in america for big ideas that unite us. A larger idea that we should all be thinking about is how we treat our returning veterans from the two largest wars in americas history iraq and afghanistan. [applause] they represent less than 1 of the american population. Most of them come from working class families, from not too far from here in the working class neighborhoods of chicago or from the barrios of the southwest or the deep woods of the south and the hills of new england or from the rural part of my native great plains. They volunteered out of a sense of patriotism and a determination to advance their own lives as well. In the course of these two long wars, they have taken 100 of the risks and 100 of the wounds and 100 of the deaths. Their families at home have been living in bubble of Emotional Trauma thinking that no one around them cares because nothing was asked of the rest of us. If we did not have someone in that war or if we did not know someone in that war, it could be out of sight, out of mind. We were not asked to make any sacrifices at home. The war just went on, fought by these brave young americans, men and women, representing the Cross Section of this immigrant nation in terms of where they come from. This is not just injustice. That is immoral for a Democratic Society to allow that. We have an opportunity to begin to correct the course not just welcome them home with a sign at the airport. Make sure that they feel that they are a part of our civilian society that they have an opportunity to find a job, be educated, to raise their families, and have the kind of services so many of them need to deal with their physical wounds as well as their emotional wounds. We also have to remember that many of them are coming home whole wanting to make a contribution to their society. There are not victims. They are proud of what they did and with good reason. We open this session today with two of our finest military men, two career officers who gave us all a sense of pride in that we were their fellow citizens. The first is the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff who also served as National Security adviser and as secretary of state. He is a modest man with nothing to be modest about general colin powell, my friend. [applause] you have already made it hard for me. Colin and i were on a panel the other night and he asked for an extension of his remarks. I said, no. He said being a general and anchorman and he went on to go on with his remarks. Now, you give him a standing o, and i have to deal with this. Another man that come to be a very close friend he has been described as one of americas greatest warriors. He ran our combined forces in afghanistan and before that, he was head of the joint special Operations Command center at war in iraq. He is a graduate of west Point Military academy. He is not just a great warrior. He is a great thinker and a great leader. He is deeply involved in the issue that brings us here today. Ladies and gentlemen, i am in awe of general stanley mcchrystal. [applause] thank you all very much. We hope in the course of the next half hour or so that we will be able to not just enlighten you about the needs of our society in terms of how we deal with our veterans but motivate you to get involved as well. Stan and general powell and i have talked about this issue before. We have familiarity about how we all feel about it. We are eager to share that with you today. What stan can do better than anyone i know is describe for you the kind of young man or woman who is enlisting in the armed forces and how their lives are shaped by that experience. It would be helpful for the people to have a clearer portrait of what happens to an 18yearold or 19yearold man or woman going into any of the branches and how it affects their lives early life and how it forms them, if you will. Thanks, tom. I appreciate the chance to be here and for everyones interest. If we start at the Inflection Point, there is an explosion or a burst of machine gun fire or a single rifle shot and an american is wounded. That has happened for 200 years of our history, but it is an Inflection Point in that typically Young Persons life. Things start to change. Immediately, they provide aid to themselves. Buddies come to provide aid. Medics come. Within an hour, so we can get them to a hospital, a helicopter come, picks that individual up and flies him off. The individual is being treated while they are on the helicopter. Their buddies stay on the ground in the fight, and that fight often continues. They watch the helicopter. They get further from their buddies, but it didnt start there. It started in a small town or city or neighborhood like you know when a young person got the feeling that they ought to enter the service. Sometimes it is because their father, grandfather, uncle, or brother served. Sometimes they lost a loved one. Sometimes it was just an idea they got. Sometimes they get the complete support of their community and people made a big deal about them leaving. Sometimes they do it over some of the protests and concerns of friends or family. Sometimes they have tried college or work and it did not work out for them. They decided that they just needed to serve and they do that. Once they join the military, it is a completely different life from anything you have done. No matter what the recruiter tell you, it is never like that. [laughter] you get there and immediately the service wants to make you a Service Member a soldier, sailor, airman, marine. They trust you differently. They have to learn a different language. They are trying to make you part of a team. It is no longer part of individual. It is all being part of the team. The team is one important than the individual. From the beginning of basic training and advanced training and then when they are sent to their first unit, they are always in groups. They are always in teams or squads or squadrons or flights. They are part of that. Then they are assigned to a permanent force. They may be in a squad or a platoon or a battery. We stress cohesion being part of that do your part. Do your share of the effort that everyone has to do so that your buddies can rely on you. The word comes that they will deploy to combat. That is even reinforced more because everything about combat is about team. The saying is ill never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hand of the enemy. It is a responsibility on every soldier for every comrade. It is about devoting yourself to the team. As they come, they have done something that we as americans have asked some to do. We have asked them to believe in themselves, in each other, their comrades, and we asked them to believe in the nation. As they go forward, they are part of a team. We have asked them. They have accepted the responsibility that comes with believing. If you think from that moment this team that has become family, suddenly as the helicopter flights away, the team becomes further and further. As a fly away from the team, although they have deep feelings, it gets further at a difficult time in their lives. It is important that we as the rest of america be ready to be the team that they come back to. General powell, it is at least on the table in this country at the moment about what we do with returning veterans. We have the Wounded Warrior project. J. P. Morgan chase has gotten deeply involved. I have written about and talked about it. Youve talked about it. It was different when you came home from vietnam. In the ensuing years for all that the military did about reinventing itself, it did not pay a lot of attention to the idea of how we make the transition from a military life to a civilian life. That is quite true. First, let me say how please i am quite to be here with my old friend, tom, and with general mcchrystal i did not work with general mcchrystal, but i worked for his father for years ago general herb mcchrystal. [laughter] i was just counting the years the other night. Stan, it is scary. It is quite true. We came home from vietnam and the country did not welcome us as they had welcomed subsequent generations, especially the current generation. The most difficult part of that was that the country said that we will not have conscription anymore. You career officers you change this army so it becomes a volunteer army. Go and find your soldiers in the labor market. Go find them in the villages and towns of america. We did that. Over a period of about five or six years, we created a splendid force of young men and women willing to serve their country as volunteers. They had the same tradition, the same culture, the same loyalty and dedication as any other generation of americans that have ever gone before. They proved themselves in the gulf war, the panama invasion and they proved themselves in the last 10 years in iraq and in afghanistan, but the theme we have to keep in mind is something president lincoln said in his second inaugural address to care for those who have borne the battle. Widows and children. To care. Is mean to never forget that they are carrying the american spirit. They are carrying the american traditions with them. When they get injured, when they get hurt, or when they come back to be reintegrate into society, we have to be waiting to care for of them it is not just the federal government or the veterans administration. It is their fellow citizens who have to care for them. Most of our soldiers come back from iraq and afghanistan and if they leave the solvers, all they want to do is integrate back into society. They want jobs. They want homes. They want to rebuild their family relationships or create a new family. The government can help, but it is up to us. The government can always do more. We can always increase the gi bill sort of benefits. We can always do more with the respective the veterans administration. Nothing is as important as Companies Like j. P. Morgan and chase or a nextdoor neighbor reaching out to help a young gi as they reintegrate into their community. We owe that to them. It is our obligation because they have discharged their obligation to us. A lot has changed. What makes this period so much different than vietnam or world war ii is that these youngsters are going back and are especially the noncommissioned officers for almost 10 or 12 years depending. They come home for six months and then they are gone again. I have known soldiers and i am sure a stand has similar examples of those who have been on multiple tours five, six tours. Stan can attest to that himself. We ask so much of them. Unlike some other conflicts that we have had in the past where there are moments of terrible danger and then there quiet periods, in iraq and afghanistan, there is no such thing. Every morning, you could get blown apart by an i. E. D. The pressure that the young people were under was as great as any generation of warriors that america has put in the field. We have seen them come back with posttraumatic stress problems. We have seen them come back with traumatic brain injury. Stan and i both know. We have been to hospitals and walter reed. We know how to save them. We know how to protect the torso, but we cannot protect the head or the limbs. The blasts affects of the iuds are blowing off limbs. I was at walter reed just about a month ago and come to a crosswalk as i was driving onto the base. A mother was pushing her son across the street in a wheelchair, missing two legs. I went to the next intersection at another crosswalk and a wife was pushing her husband across the street, missing two legs. At the course of my time at walter reed, you see these terrible injuries the brain injuries, especially. Tbi is so much worse because you can get a prosthetic limb but to recover from some of the most dramatic brain injuries may never happen. We celebrated one such young soldier at a memorial day concert two or three years ago. I felt so badly because his mother and his sister were now faced with that problem of caring for this young man for the rest of their lives and the rest of his life. We owe so much to these men and women who have served us. Most of them are coming back. They will make a contribution to their companies, to their communities, to wherever they go. They will be great, just like previous generations of soldiers. We also have a generation coming back that will need our help. Do not wait for chase for j. P. Morgan. Look around your own community. Look in the Community Next to your where you might find some of these young veterans. Do they need a house . Can you chip in to help build a handicap facility for a home so they can get in and out . If you see somebody who is having trouble in their life, can you reach out and say hey, howre you doing . Come on over for dinner. A lot of these problems of stress disorder have to do with loneliness and not turning loose that war you were apart of. You can help with that. Do not shy away. Just do not greet them at an airport. We need you to greet them in their communities. We need you to reach other to them and their children and spouses of these families because they did so much for us. We have that obligation to them. [applause] a lot of the private sector did not know how to deal with them. One of my very favorite stories was a captain who came home and the Personnel Office said i dont see any qualifications or experiences here. He said i dont know. On a regular basis i would lead the squad into a village in afghanistan, clean out bad guys, meet with the village elders, rebuild the sanitation system, get them power and build a medical clinic. I think it counts for something. Has the private sector begin to tune in to the capabilities a lot of young people have that may not fit their idea of a harvard mba . I think slowly we have. I think is from both sides. Military Service Members most of whom never really has civilian jobs probably had never done a resume or job interview, not done some of the things that allow them to build up the experience and contacts that help other people. They come out a few years older from the experience. What they put on paper driving a tank may not line up with a company that says we do not have tanks. What do we do with this guy . It is 3 million piece of equipment with a fourman crew. It has to be maintained. It has to be operated. Even at junior levels, we have this extraordinary amount of responsibility. We are starting to see this appreciation through some job fairs, some of the transition programs. There is a lot left to do particularly in a tough Business Environment where businesses are trying to make sure that they get the right kinds of skills. There is pressure on Human Resource departments to get the right fit. We can do more to mine the kind of experiences young people bring back. The vast majority come back not just well they come back better. They have done things. They have matured and seasoned them. We can do more on the paperwork and connections side to mine whats really an opportunity. It is not a burden for the nation to carry. It is a mine for us to pull these resources out. Through the gi bill which has been renewed, are they getting the kind of training that they need for the demands of the modern economy . It is available. We can do better with it. They are facts like completion rates for the gi bill education are not as high as they ought to be. We can structure some of those programs better so that individuals who start school have the support mechanisms to finish an Associates Degree or bachelors degree if that is their goal. We can do better at that. There are wellintentioned programs that are not quite efficient or effective to this point as i hope there will be in the future. The university of iowa offers instate tuition for returning veterans. I said to the president what is the impact on the campus . She said beyond my ability to describe it we have 200 of them here. They lifted the entire campus. As someone who went to the university of iowa i could have used that kind of mentoring and leadership at one point. We do not have to go do that again. Paul, we talked about that. [laughter] that is value added when these young men and women come back and enter an academic or Training Program of some kind. I could not agree more. At my alma mater at the city college of new york, we had a specific program at the Powell Center that i am happy to have named after me there and we take in gis. We have mentoring program set for them. We have programs that get them up to speed if they have some weakness in their earlier academic career that needs correction, and we have money that is used to supplement not only their academic costs but the costs of living. More universities are doing that. It is important now because the economy is still in a weak state, slowly improving, but still weak.