Dan Coats: “on Tuesday of this week, our Nation celebrated Veterans Day. I had the pleasure of returning to Indiana and talking to…”

“on Tuesday of this week, our Nation celebrated Veterans Day. I had the pleasure of returning to Indiana and talking to some of our veterans and speaking to an important group about the meaning of Veterans Day and the contributions veterans have made to our country and their sacrifices. We honor Americans on that day, both men and women, who served in both peace and war, as watchmen and women on the wall of freedom. We honor them by remembering their heroism, passing stories of their character and courage from generation to generation. It is disappointing and extremely unfortunate that in this very same week the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Ms. Sara Lister, made some remarks to a group to whom she was speaking at Harvard, referring to members of the U.S. Marine Corps as 'extremists.' I quote her. She says the Marines are 'extremists. Wherever you have extremists, you've got some risks of total disconnection with society. And that's a little dangerous.' Now, subsequently, Ms. Lister has penned a letter of apology to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Krulak, in which she says it's unfortunate that my remarks were taken out of context. It's unfortunate that they were misinterpreted. Now, all of us in the business of politics have had occasion to pick up the paper in the morning and seen our remarks taken out of context and be misinterpreted. So I appreciate that this sort of thing often takes place.”