Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War

by Gates, Robert M

  Watching an MRAP being loaded for airlift to Iraq.

  Enlisting new recruits in my hometown of Wichita, Kansas. They volunteered to serve knowing they would go to war.

  At Kansas State University in late 2007, I called for more money for the long-underfunded State Department and U.S. development programs abroad. Coming from the secretary of defense, the speech made a big splash.

  Becky and I arrive at Pacific Command in Hawaii, my arm in a sling. I had never broken a bone or had surgery before I was secretary of defense. I managed to do both within two years after taking the job.

  With President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, in 2008. It was the only time I saw him sit patiently through hours of boring speeches. He lasted longer than most of his colleagues.

  Lieutenant General Pete Chiarelli was one of my closest confidants. A tireless advocate for the troops, he was always exceptionally candid with me.

  The dedication and opening of the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. To my left, the president, former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, Admiral Mullen, and Jim Laychak (president of the Pentagon Memorial Fund).

  I was the only secretary of defense to take an entire motorcade to a Burger King. Geoff Morrell, left, and Ryan McCarthy of my office enjoy my lack of discipline.

  President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and I are joined in the Oval Office by White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, at far left, and National Security Adviser Steve Hadley. It really wasn’t four against one. Well, sometimes it was.

  In Baghdad in September 2008, for the change of command from Petraeus to General Ray Odierno. I can’t remember the reason for the levity, but there wasn’t much of it in Iraq.

  Holding an informal press conference at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in September 2008. Twenty years earlier, as the deputy director of the CIA, I had been providing weapons to the Afghan resistance to attack Soviet aircraft at that base.

  A birthday present from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England. I was uncertain about the symbolism: did he think I needed the costume for my many battles?

  Just another tourist in Kosovo.

  Visiting my heroes who had fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Section 60, Arlington National Cemetery, late 2008. There would be many more.

  In Kandahar, Afghanistan, checking out an M-29 Reaper drone, which represented a major innovation in reconnaissance and weaponry.

  It wasn’t all drudgery and conflict: attending a Little League baseball game at the White House with President Bush and Admiral Mullen.

  President Bush and I say our farewells in the Oval Office a few days before the end of his presidency.

  One editorial cartoonist properly captures the venality of certain members of Congress, and another depicts the reaction to my announcement that I wanted to kill or cap three dozen major weapons and equipment programs.

  With General David McKiernan, commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He was a fine officer, but I relieved him on this visit.

  Speaking to a group of Marines in Helmand province, Afghanistan, with the ever-present backdrop of MRAPs, a life-saving vehicle I championed. I would take an individual picture with every soldier and Marine present on such visits.

  President Barack Obama was always friendly and gracious toward me, even when we disagreed.

  Briefing President Obama in the Oval Office with JCS vice chairman Cartwright, perhaps Obama’s favorite general.

  A U.S. ground-based interceptor missile in its silo at Fort Greely, Alaska. The GBIs there are the heart of our missile defense against limited threats from North Korea and Iran.

  A press briefing aboard an E4B en route to Singapore. The plane, a converted Boeing 747, was dubbed by the crew “The Big Brisket” in recognition of my fondness for barbecue, which was often served on these flights.

  CBS correspondent Bob Schieffer, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and I share a laugh while taping a joint interview at the Pentagon. She was a terrific colleague and a highly valued one—not least for her sense of humor.

  With two presidents in a dressing room at Texas A&M University. Obama supported George H. W. Bush’s Points of Light Foundation. They were the sixth and eighth presidents I worked for.

  Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai and I always had a warm relationship, even when he was bitterly criticizing the United States. Many of his outbursts were provoked by our failure to heed concerns he voiced in private—and by internal politics in Afghanistan.

  Talking with troops in Kabul. They never failed to inspire and reenergize me.

  With General Stan McChrystal at his headquarters in Kabul. He was a supremely gifted combat commander, outflanked by politics and the media.

  Walking the streets of Now Zad, a village in southern Afghanistan reclaimed from the Taliban by U.S. Marines at a very high cost. I wondered to myself if the cost was too high.

  A tepee with memorials to a unit’s lost comrades at Forward Operating Base Frontenac in Afghanistan.

  Arrival and “dignified transfer” of a fallen soldier at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. I had directed in April 2009 that such photos could be taken with the family’s permission.

  Gowning up to visit seriously wounded troops at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany, the first stop for wounded on the way home. Thanks to the doctors, nurses, and staff there, nearly everyone who went on from Landstuhl would survive.

  Secretary Clinton and I at Panmunjom at the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ). I was tempted to make a very undiplomatic gesture to the North Korean soldier observing us through the window. I refrained, barely.

  With two great Marine warriors, General Jim Mattis, on my left, and General John Allen.

  Congratulating would-be SEALs on their survival of “Hell Week.” Only about a third of those who enter training for these elite units become SEALs.

  Presenting medals and combat insignia in Afghanistan. The soldiers were so damn young and, as I said, my heroes.

  Lunch with junior enlisted troops at Combat Outpost Senjaray, near Kandahar. I always learned a lot in these sessions, which were frequent.

  Meeting privately at Forward Operating Base Connolly, eastern Afghanistan, with a platoon that had lost six soldiers in an attack by an Afghan soldier.

  One unit in Afghanistan, to which I presented five Purple Hearts and multiple other medals.

  I am pinning on the Purple Heart medal in Afghanistan, honoring those wounded in battle. It is the medal no one wants to earn but that I was deeply honored to present.

  Out for a stroll in eastern Afghanistan with commander of the storied 101st Airborne Division, Major General J. F. Campbell, on my right. I had great respect for him as a soldier and a leader.

  Landing at a forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan. Not much grows there except bad guys.

  Watching flight operations on board the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.

  A cozy, casual meeting with China’s new leader-to-be, Vice President Xi Jinping. We are on the far right; the others are U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, fourth from the right, and my staff.

  The new world: the former director of the CIA and U.S. secretary of defense gives a press conference atop the Great Wall of China. I am being coached by my press spokesman, Geoff Morrell.

  Locked and loaded with vodka, properly armed for a congressional hearing. Kevin Brown, with me, was my security officer and provisioner.

  Mike Mullen and I, in a routine meeting with the president in the Oval Office. I never ate a single apple.

  Jim “Hoss” Cartwright explains something complicated using a laptop. The light of understanding is not apparent on the faces of his audience—me, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Obama.

  The American secretary of defense fires the noon cannon at Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg, Russia. The cannon blast has been a tradition since the time of Peter the Great. Stalin must have been spinning in his grave.

  At the hospital
at Camp Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan, where significant increases in medevac capabilities helped the doctors save lives.

  With Marine Staff Sergeant Timothy Brown at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Over time, these visits got harder for me, knowing I had sent all the wounded in harm’s way.

  General Lloyd Austin, here with me in Baghdad on my last visit there, in 2011, was the last American commander in Iraq.

  Mullen and I share the platform one last time at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day 2011. He was a terrific partner.

  Resplendent in my traditional Afghan war helmet, a gift from my intrepid staff during my last visit to Kabul.

  A last helicopter flight in Afghanistan with Deputy Commander Lieutenant General “Rod” Rodriguez and Lieutenant General John Kelly. Rod was one of my earlier senior military assistants, and John was my last. All five officers who had that job under me were the cream of the crop.

  Wherever I went in Iraq and Afghanistan, I found Texas A&M Aggies on the front lines, and they found me. Some I had presented with their diplomas, witnessed their commissioning, and then, as secretary, sent them to war.

  On the anniversary of D-Day in June 2011, I spoke to troops in Afghanistan for the last time. They had no idea how hard that was for me.

  President Obama presents me with the Medal of Freedom on my last day in office, June 30, 2011. My four and a half years at war were finally over.

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