Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Speaks to Pentagon Employees - East Idaho News
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Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Speaks to Pentagon Employees

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GETTY 21915 AshCarter?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1424376855023Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of Defense Ash Carter spoke to members of the military at the Pentagon Thursday for the first time since being sworn in earlier this week.

The event was originally scheduled to take place this past Tuesday — his first day on the job — but was postponed due to a snowstorm in Washington, D.C.

“I’m very pleased to be back with you. It’s the highest honor of my lifetime and the highest honor that I think an American can have to be a Secretary of Defense,” Carter said before Pentagon employees.

The new Defense secretary hit on the same three commitments he made in his White House remarks following his swearing in ceremony: A responsibility to care for those in uniform, providing the president with his best advice and preserving the military’s role for the future.

Carter said a challenge will be how to make military service appealing to the next generation.

“They behave differently, they think differently, they’ve grown up differently. They’re used to a different kind of environment around them, and we have to make ourselves attractive to them,” he said.

Carter also said he wants to work for better compensation for service members and strengthen forces in order to be prepared to combat security threats.


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