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Home : Media : News : News Display

Winnefeld Praises TSA Efforts to Hire Veterans, Secure Nation


By Claudette Roulo
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON —

The United States rose out of the sacrifices of its service members to become the strongest and most prosperous nation in history, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.

Those sacrifices stretch back through history to America’s earliest days, Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr. said during a Veterans’ Day ceremony at the Transportation Security Administration headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. He was joined at the ceremony by TSA administrator John S. Pistole.

“For our entire history as a nation,” he said, “citizens from every walk of life, of every stripe and color, and from every background have stepped forward, raised their hand, and taken an oath to ‘bear true faith and allegiance.’”

Giving Thanks for Service Members’ Sacrifices

Service members “put on the uniform and they put their lives on the line from Lexington to ... Afghanistan,” the admiral said.

“Tomorrow -- the eleventh day of the eleventh month -- marks the 96th anniversary of the cease-fire that would eventually end the First World War,” Pistole said. “Initially celebrated as ‘Armistice Day,’ November 11th would later become known as Veterans Day, a celebration of thanks to all who have served in the United States military.”

Winnefeld and Pistole each said it was a privilege to be able to honor the more than 2.2 million Americans currently serving in uniform and the millions of veterans now serving the nation in other ways.

“Whether you served in a time of war or a time of peace, you did so to uphold our national values and to protect and ensure the many liberties we all enjoy,” Pistole said. “For that -- for your dedication to duty and your commitment to our democracy and all it stands for -- we are truly grateful.”

More than 2.4 million people -- from every state and U.S. territory -- have volunteered to serve in a military uniform over the past 13 years, Winnefeld said.

9/11 Generation Also Answered Call to Duty

“Today’s generation of veterans, those we call the 9/11 generation, have likewise answered America’s call in tour after tour in Iraq and Afghanistan and in our global operations around the world,” he said.

That service “is chronicled daily in the nation’s headlines,” the admiral said. “Whether combating extremist militants or a deadly infectious disease, the men and women of the U.S. armed forces are doing extraordinary work.”

And it’s important to remember the sacrifices of military families as well, he said.

“Military life is truly a family business,” Winnefeld said. “With grace and resilience, military families endure the absence of loved ones and shoulder the burdens of long deployments, difficult separations, and moves across the country and overseas.”

TSA Helps Keep America Safe

But the military does not stand alone in its defense of the United States, he noted.

“Created in the wake of [Sept. 11, 2001], the TSA team every day strengthens the security of our nation’s transportation system,” the admiral said. “ … We share a sacred mission -- to protect our nation and our citizens from our enemies. And in this mission, we have no option other than to be perfect all the time -- there is no room for error.”

“There is no ‘half-way right,’” he continued. “We either prevent an attack or we don’t.”

Because of the TSA, Winnefeld said, the military has not been called upon to exercise its “enormous capability on the last line of military defense against a terrorist attack.”

TSA Initiatives

The admiral thanked members of the TSA for their daily effort to keep the country safe and noted several initiatives directed at making travel easier for troops and veterans, to include:

-- Expedited screening services for service members;

-- The Wounded Warrior Program, which reduces the stress of traveling for wounded troops and allows them to maintain their dignity while traveling;

-- The Honor Flight Network, which transports veterans and their escorts to Washington, D.C., area airports to visit the war memorials dedicated in their honor; and

-- The TSA veteran recruitment program.

“Veterans comprise 25 percent of [the TSA] workforce,” said Winnefeld, who noted the TSA “is not only tapping into a huge resource in our veterans,” but also “allowing them to continue protecting the country they love.”

“On behalf of our men and women in uniform, and the rest of the citizens of this great nation, thank you for the exceptional relationship between the TSA and the U.S. military and thank you for all that you do,” the admiral said.

(Follow Claudette Roulo on Twitter: @roulododnews)