Rep. Frederica Wilson caused an uproar when she revealed President Trump's conversation with military widow Myesha Johnson

Trump had placed a condolence call to the family of Sgt. La David Johnson after his death on Oct. 4 in Niger

Wilson listened in on the president via speakerphone and said Trump told Johnson's widow 'that's what he signed up for'

White House chief of staff John Kelly blasted Wilson as a 'selfish' Member of Congress on Thursday

He hammered an 'empty barrel' lawmaker (Wilson) who took credit for funding a building to honor slain FBI agents

Wilson told Politico Trump was a 'jerk' and Kelly was 'trying to keep his job'

The Florida lawmaker now says that Kelly is a liar - she couldn't have 'bragged' about the money because she wasn't in Congress when it was appropriated

Video has since emerged of Wilson's speech at the building dedication; she boasted about her efforts to secure approval for the name of the of the structure

Said nothing of the funding in the speech - which she said Friday she couldn't have secured because she was not yet in Congress

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson says John Kelly lied about her behavior at the dedication of an FBI building in her state and made a 'racist' charge against her in the process.

Wilson says she wasn't a Member of Congress when the money for the building was secured, so she couldn't have 'bragged' about bringing home the bacon like Kelly said she did.

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'You know, I feel sorry for Gen. Kelly. He has the sympathy for the loss of his son. But he can't just go on TV and lie on me,' Wilson said Friday on CNN.

The Florida Democrat also accused Kelly of using a 'racist' epithet against her during a White House news conference on Thursday afternoon, where he compared her to an 'empty barrel.'

Wilson said that after looking it up in the dictionary, she had concluded that 'empty barrel' is a 'racist term.'

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson says John Kelly lied about her behavior at the dedication of an FBI building in her district. 'You know, I feel sorry for Gen. Kelly. He has the sympathy for the loss of his son. But he can't just go on TV and lie on me,' Wilson said Friday on CNN

The White House chief of staff, Kelly, pictured, and the Florida congresswoman are wrapped up in a mushrooming dispute over the president's condolence call earlier this week to a soldier's family that Wilson says was inappropriate; Kelly called her a noisy 'empty barrel'

This photo provided by the U.S. Army Special Operations Command shows Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger. President Donald Trump told Johnson's widow, Myeshia Johnson, that her husband 'knew what he signed up for,' according to Wilson, who said she heard part of the conversation on speakerphon

Video has since emerged of Wilson's speech at the building dedication. The South Florida Sun Sentinel posted a complete recording of her remarks online.

Wilson did boast about her efforts to secure approval for the name of the of the structure in time for the dedication ceremony - the Benjamin P. Grogan and Jerry L. Dove Federal Building - but she said nothing of the funding. She heralded other Members of Congress from Florida who were instrumental in the naming of the federal building in her remarks, as well as law enforcement officials inside and outside of the audience.

She asked law enforcement officers in attendance to stand for a round of applause and honored the two slain agents the 380,000-square-foot building would memorialize.

A Sun Sentinel article from the day of the dedication said her heroics in the naming episode were backed up by another person who was present at the ceremony, James Comey, then the FBI director.

'Rep. Wilson truly did the impossible, and we are eternally grateful,' the news publication quoted Comey as saying.

The White House refused to admit on Friday that Kelly had been mistaken in his representation of Wilson's remarks. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders contended that Wilson made self-aggrandizing statements throughout the event and that's what Kelly was talking about.

'Exactly what he said [was] there was a lot of grandstanding, he was stunned that she had taken that opportunity to make it about herself,' Huckabee Sanders stated.

When the reporter she was tussling with asserted that Kelly was 'wrong' about Wilson, Huckabee Sanders snapped back with: 'If you want to go after General Kelly that's up to you, but I think that that - if you want to get into a debate with a four-star Marine General, I think that that's something highly inappropriate.'

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Kelly, the White House chief of staff, had indirectly slammed Wilson on Thursday afternoon for her actions at the event as a dispute over the president's condolence call earlier this week to a soldier's family mushroomed.

Wilson says that Trump told Sgt. La David T. Johnson's pregnant widow Myeshia that her late husband 'knew what he signed up for' when he enlisted but 'when it happens it hurts anyway.'

Her account of the call, which she says she just happened to be present for, has been backed up publicly by other officials and family members who were present.

Kelly, a retired general whose own son died in combat, was in the room with Trump when the president called the grieving family on Tuesday. He suggested yesterday that Trump spoke the words in question to the Johnsons - it's the sentiment behind the statement that's being misconstrued.

Denouncing Wilson as 'selfish' in an emotional statement for listening in on the presidential condolence call in the first place, Kelly smacked the Florida lawmaker for her conduct a 2015 memorial service for two slain FBI agents in Miami-Dade.

'And a congresswoman stood up, and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there and all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call he gave the money -- the $20 million -- to build the building,' Kelly said.

'And she sat down, and we were stunned. Stunned that she had done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned,' he added.

Kelly – himself a Gold Star parent following his son's 2010 death in Afghanistan – delivered the shocking statement from the White House briefing room.

He appeared on camera to provide testimony about the mechanics of how the military transfers the remains of the fallen and of how he learned his own son had been killed in action. Kelly also said that he looked gloweringly on Wilson's behavior now and at the FBI ceremony.

Wilson told a reporter afterward that the White House official was just trying to protect himself.

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'John Kelly's trying to keep his job,' Wilson told Politico. 'He will say anything. There were other people who heard what I heard,' she said, in reference to the president's condolence call.

Speaking from Florida, Wilson teed off on Trump, calling him a 'jerk' and a 'liar.'

She accused Kelly of lying, too, in a subsequent appearance on CNN.

'That's a lie,' she said of his recollection of her attitude at the FBI dedication. 'I was not even Congress in 2009 when the money for the building was secured. So that's a lie. How dare he.'

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Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., talks to reporters, Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Wilson is standing by her statement that President Donald Trump told Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson killed in an ambush in Niger, that her husband "knew what he signed up for." She stayed away from Washington and wouldn't respond after getting trashed by chief of staff John Kelly

Wilson sent this ominous tweet just after 2 am on Friday morning. It didn't mention Kelly but it was clearly about him

Wilson said she named the building 'at the behest of Director Comey, with the help of Speaker Boehner, working across party lines. So, he didn't tell the truth. And he needs to stop telling lies.'

John Boehner was the speaker of the House at the time. The Republican politician has since retired. Comey is the former director of the FBI. Trump fired him earlier this year.

At the White House's daily press briefing on Friday, Huckabee Sanders was forced to play clean up for both of her bosses.

First, she said Kelly stands by what he said.

'Absolutely. Gen. Kelly said he was stunned that Representative Wilson made comments at a building dedication honoring slained FBI agents about her own actions in Congress including lobbying former President Obama on legislation.

'As General Kelly pointed out if you're able to make a sacred act like honoring American heroes all about yourself, you're an empty barrel. If you don't understand that reference, I'll put it a little bit more simply. As we say in the South, all hat, no cattle.'

Faced with evidence that Kelly had misspoken, Huckabee Sanders said the emphasis of Kelly's point still stands.

'She also mentioned that, and she also had a few comments that day that weren't part of that speech and that weren't part of that video that were also witnessed by many people that were there.'

Wilson did a round of TV interviews after the president's condolence call

Wilson – who made a series of TV appearances that fueled the controversy – went mum on Thursday afternoon as reporters tried to reach her for a response to Kelly.

'This shouldn't be about her. It's about remembering and honoring this fallen hero and fighting for his family,' a spokesman said.

Her office then issued a formal statement: 'The congresswoman will not be making any further comment on the issue because the focus should be on helping a grieving widow and family heal, not on her or Donald Trump.'

Overnight, she seemingly changed her mind.

A 2 am tweet that came without context but was clearly related to Kelly's charges said, 'Sticks and stones...'

Wilson appeared on CNN's New Day program via satellite feed just after 7 am EDT.

Asked by New Day's Alisyn Camerota about Kelly's 'empty barrels' accusation, Wilson replied, 'I think that's a racist term....We looked it up into the dictionary, because we had never heard of an empty barrel, and I don't want to be dragged into something like that.

She then pivoted to the the 'Bring Back Our Girls' movement against Boko Harem and her years-long push to bring down the terror group.

Wilson said she had a constituent who was in Nigeria on detail who was 'killed and abandoned.'

'And I feel guilty because this is what I do every Wednesday in Congress,' she said holding up a sign that said BringBackOurGirls. 'We wear red. We're concerned about Boko Harem being the most vicious terrorist organization in the world. And we never really hear about Boko Harem, and Boko Harem and ISIS combined, and they killed my son.'

Wilson did a round of TV interviews after the president's condolence call

At the White House, the controversy over the president's condolence calls to the families of four soldiers who died in an ISIS ambush in Niger earlier this month has raged on.

Kelly spoke of his own experience when he was informed of the death of his son, Robert Kelly, killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010, on Thursday afternoon in an unexpected appearance behind the White House podium, then defended president Trump and went after Wilson.

'It stuns me that a Member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me. I though at least that was sacred,' Kelly said, containing obvious anger and emotion.

Wilson, a Democrat who represents part of Miami, says she was listening in on speakerphone when Myeshia took the President's call on Tuesday while driving to Miami International Airport to meet his repatriated body.

She says Trump told Johnson 'that's what he signed up for,' upsetting the widow. She spoke to the Washington Post about it, and gave a TV interview where she said Trump 'has a brain disorder, and he needs to be checked out. ... We should be praising his family, not insulting them.'

Kelly says he was so upset by Wilson's appearances that he left work to walk among the fallen at Arlington National Cemetery.

'When I listen to this woman and what she was saying, what she was doing on TV, the only thing I could do to collect my thoughts is to go and walk among the finest men and women on this earth,' Kelly told stunned reporters.

'You can always find them. They're in Arlington National Cemetery. I went over there for an hour and a half, walked among the stones, some of whom I put there, because they were doing what I told them to do when they were killed,' he added.

Rep. Wilson's office was shuttered on Thursday, while the congresswoman was at the center of a national controversy

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) and Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) (L) join fellow Democratic members of the House for a news conference to call on Republicans to fund programs to combat the spread of the Zika virus at the U.S. Capitol September 7, 2016 in Washington, DC

Wilson is seen here talking to reporters on Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017, in Miami Gardens, Fla. She had not problem talking to press until Kelly came after her. She went into hiding on Thursday only to reappear Friday on CNN

Then he told a story about a puffed-up lawmaker, without mentioning who it was, that was clearly about Wilson herself.

He spoke about the dedication of an FBI building in Miami in 2015, where former FBI Director James Comey delivered remarks about the two federal agents, Benjamin P. Grogan, and Jerry L. Dove, who had been killed in a fight with drug traffickers.

'So we go down, Jim Comey did an absolutely brilliant memorial speech to those fallen men, and to all of the men and women of the FBI who serve our country so well, and law enforcement so well.'

'There were family members there. Some of the children that were there were only 3 or 4 years old when their dads were killed on that street in Miami-Dade. Three of the men that survived the fight were there and gave a rendition of how brave those men were and how they gave their lives,' he said.

He then brought up a 'congresswoman' who 'in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise' began bragging and showboating about securing the building's funding.

Wilson was obviously the target of his disdain.

Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) speaks about the death of Sgt. La David Johnson before attending a Congressional field hearing on nursing home preparedness and disaster response October 19, 2017 in Miami, Florida

President Barack Obama walks alongside Wilson, (C) House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (R) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (2nd R), as he arrives for a meeting with the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses to discuss the Affordable Care Act at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 4, 2017

As silent reporters listened, Kelly said, 'We were stunned, stunned that she'd done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned. But you know, none of us went to the press and criticized. None of us stood up and were appalled. We just said, "Okay, fine." '

Planned Parenthood Action was one of the first groups to bring race into the discussion.

The group that supporters liberal causes tweeted: 'This is part of a pattern of Trump admin attacking & undermining Black women. It's despicable. We stand with @RepWilson & all Black women.'

Before coming to Congress, Wilson served in the Florida state House and Senate. She got elected to Congress in 2010, having also served as an elementary school teacher and principal, Fox News reported.

AIn this Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, frame from video, Myeshia Johnson cries over the casket of her husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger, upon his body's arrival in Miami

She is known to wear all manner of cowboy hats, sometimes bedecked in rhinestones from colors ranging from bright yellow to turquoise, in buttoned-down Washington.

'I've never counted, but I've been wearing them almost 30 years,' Wilson said, Politifact reported. 'It's almost like a fetish. ... I have hundreds.'

'It all started with my grandmother, whose name was Frederica also. She wore hats and gloves. I just wanted to be like her, so I started wearing hats. I just like to dress up, I guess, and I got that from her,' she told Roll Call.

GEN. JOHN KELLY'S STUNNING WHITE HOUSE SPEECH GEN. JOHN KELLY: 'Most Americans don't know what happens when we lose one of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines or coast guardsman in combat. So let me tell you what happens. Their buddies wrap them up in whatever passes as a shroud, puts them on a helicopter as a routine, and sends them home. 'Their first stop along the way is when they're packed in ice, typically at the airhead and then they're flown to usually Europe – where they're then packed in ice again and flown to Dover Air Force Base. Where Dover takes care of the remains, embalms them, meticulously dresses them in their uniform with the medals that they've earned, the emblems of their service and then puts them on another airplane linked up with the casualty officer escort that takes them home. 'A very, very good movie to watch is 'Taking Chance' if you haven't seen it, where this is done in a movie, HBO setting. Chance Phelps was killed under my command, right next to me. It's worth seeing that if you have never seen it. So that's the process. 'While that's happening, a casualty officer typically goes to the home very early in the morning and waits for the first lights to come on. And then he knocks on the door. Typically the mom and dad will answer. Wife. If there is a wife this is happening in two different places. If the parents are divorced, three different places. And the casualty officer proceeds to break the heart of a family member. And stays with that family until, well, for a long, long time, even after the interment. So that's what happens. 'Who are these young men and women? They are the best 1 per cent this country produces. Most of you as Americans don't know them. Many of you don't know anyone who knows any one of them. But they are the very best that this country produces. And they volunteer to protect our country when there's nothing in our country anymore that seems to suggest that selfless service to the nation is not only appropriate but required. But that's all right. 'Who writes letters to the families? Typically the company commander – in my case as a Marine, the company commander – the battalion commander, regimental commander, division commander, secretary of defense, typically the service chief, the commandant of the Marine Corps, and the president, typically writes a letter. 'Typically the only phone calls a family receives are the most important phone calls they can imagine, and that is from their buddies. In my case, hours after my son was killed, his friends were calling us from Afghanistan, telling us what a great guy he was. Those are the only phone calls that really matter. And yeah, the letters count to a degree, but there's not much that really can take the edge off what a family member is going through. 'So some presidents have elected to call. All presidents, I believe, have elected to send letters. If you elect to call a family like this, it is about the most difficult thing you could imagine. There's no perfect way to make that phone call. When I took this job and talked to President Trump about how to do it, my first recommendation was, he not do it. Because it's not the phone call that parents, family members are looking forward to. It's a 'nice to do' in my opinion, in any event. 'He asked me about previous presidents. And I said I can tell you that President Obama, who was my commander-in-chief when I was on active duty, did not call my family. That was not a criticism. That was just to simply say I don't believe President Obama called. That's not a negative thing. I don't believe President Bush called in all cases. I don't believe any president, particularly when the casualty rates are very, very high, that presidents call. I believe they all write. 'So when I gave that explanation to our president three days ago, he elected to make phone calls in the case of the four young men who we lost in Niger at the earlier part of this month. But then he said, you know, 'How do you make these calls?' If you're not in the family, if you've never worn the uniform, if you've never been in combat, you can't even imagine how to make that phone call. But he very bravely does make those calls. 'The call in question that he made yesterday, a day before yesterday now, were to four family members. The four fallen. And remember, there's a next of kin, designated by the individual. If he's married, that's typically the spouse. If he's not married, that's typically the parents, unless the parents are divorced and then he selects one of them. If he didn't get along with his parents, he'll select a sibling. But the point is the phone call is made to the next of kin only if the next of kin agrees to take the phone call. Sometimes they don't. So a pre-call is made: 'The President of the United States or the commandant of the Marine Corps, or someone would like to call. Will you accept the call?' And typically they accept the call. 'So he called four people yesterday and expressed his condolences the best way he could. He said to me, 'What do I say?' I said to him, 'Sir, there's nothing you can do to lighten the burden on these families.' 'Let me tell you what I tell them. Let me tell you what my best friend Joe Dunford told me, as he was my casualty officer. He said, 'Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we're at war.' And when he died, in the four cases we're talking about, in Niger, and my son's case in Afghanistan, when he died, he was surrounded by the best men on this earth, his friends. That's what the president tried to say to the four families the other day. 'I was stunned when I came to work yesterday morning, and broken-hearted, at what I saw a member of Congress doing. A member of Congress who listened in on a phone call from the President of the United States to a young wife. And in his way he tried to express that opinion, that he's a brave man, a fallen hero. He knew what he was getting himself into because he enlisted. There was no reason to enlist. He enlisted. And he was where he wanted to be, exactly where he wanted to be, with exactly the people he wanted to be with when his life was taken. That was the message. That was the message that was transmitted. 'It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred. 'You know, when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred, looked upon with great honor. That's obviously not the case anything as we see from recent cases. Life, the dignity of life is sacred. That's gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. Gold star families – I think that left in the convention over the summer. I just thought that selfless devotion that brings a man or women to die in the battlefield, I just thought that that might be sacred. 'When I listen to this woman and what she was saying, what she was doing on TV, the only thing I could do to collect my thoughts is to go and walk among the finest men and women on this earth. You can always find them. They're in Arlington National Cemetery. I went over there for an hour and a half, walked among the stones, some of whom I put there, because they were doing what I told them to do when they were killed. 'I'll end with this: In October, April of 2015, I was still on active duty. I went to the dedication of the new FBI field office in Miami. And it was dedicated to two men that were killed in a firefight in Miami with, against drug traffickers in 1986. A guy by the name of Grogan, and Duke [sic]. Grogan almost retired, 53 years old. Duke, I think less than a year on the job. Anyways, they got in a gun fight and they were killed. Three other FBI agents were there, wounded. Now retired. 'So we go down, Jim Comey did an absolutely brilliant memorial speech to those fallen men, and to all of the men and women of the FBI who serve our country so well, and law enforcement so well. There were family members there. Some of the children that were there were only 3 or 4 years old when their dads were killed on that street in Miami-Dade. Three of the men that survived the fight were there and gave a rendition of how brave those men were and how they gave their lives. 'And a congresswoman stood up – and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money. And she just called up president Obama and on that phone call he gave the money, the $20 million to build the building. She sat down. We were stunned, stunned that she'd done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned. But you know, none of us went to the press and criticized. None of us stood up and were appalled. We just said, 'Okay, fine.' 'So I still hope as you write your stories, and I appeal to America, that let's not let this maybe last thing that's held sacred in our society, a young man, a young woman going out and giving his or her life for our country, let's try to somehow keep that sacred. But it eroded a great deal yesterday by the selfish behavior of a member of Congress. So I'm willing to take a question or two on this topic. 'Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Is anyone here a Gold Star parent or sibling? Does anyone here know a Gold Star parent or sibling? Okay. You get the question.' REPORTER: 'Thank you, General Kelly. First of all, you have a great deal of respect. 'Semper Fi' for everything you've ever done. But if we could take this a bit further. Why were they in Niger? We were told they weren't in armored vehicles and there was no air cover. So what were the specifics about this particular incident, and why we were there? Why are we there?' GEN. KELLY: 'Well, I'll start by saying there is an investigation. Now, let me back up and say, the fact of the matter is, young men and women that wear our uniform are deployed around the world and there are tens of thousands near the DMZ in North Korea, in Okinawa waiting to go – in South Korea, in Okinawa – ready to go, All over the United States, training, ready to go. They're all over Latin America. Down there they do mostly drug interdiction working with our partners, our great partners the Colombians, the Central Americans, the Mexicans. You know, there's thousands. 'My own son right now, back in the fight for his fifth tour in – against ISIS. There's thousands of them in Europe acting as a deterrent. And then throughout Africa. And they're doing the nation's work there. And not making a lot of money, by the way, doing it. They love what they do. So why were they there? They're there working with partners, local Africans, all across Africa in this case, Niger, working with partners, teaching them how to be better soldiers, teaching them how to respect human rights. Teaching them how to fight ISIS so that we don't have to send our soldiers and Marines there in their thousands. That's what they were doing there. 'Now there's an investigation. There's always – unless it's a very conventional death in a conventional war, there's always an investigation. Of course, that operation is conducted by AFRICOM that of course works directly for the Secretary of Defense. There is a, I talked to Jim Mattis this morning, I think he made statements this afternoon. There's an investigation ongoing. 'An investigation doesn't mean anything was wrong. An investigation doesn't mean people's heads are going to roll. The fact is, they need to find out what happened and why it happened. But at the end of the day, ladies and gentlemen, you have to understand that these young people, sometimes old guys, put on the uniform, go to where we send them to protect our country. 'Sometimes they go in large numbers to invade Iraq, invade Afghanistan. Sometimes they're working in small units, working with our partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America, helping them be better. But at the end of the day, they're helping those partners be better at fighting ISIS and north Africa to protect our country so that we don't have to send large numbers of troops. 'Any other – someone who knows a Gold Star fallen person. John?' REPORTER: 'General, thank you for being here today. Thank you for your service and for your family's sacrifice. There's been some talk about the timetable of the release of the statement about the – I think at that point it was three soldiers who were killed in Niger. Can you walk us through the timetable of the release of that information, and what part did the fact that a beacon was pinging during that time have to do with the relase of the statement? And were you concerned that divulging the information early might jeopardize a soldier's safety?' GEN. KELLY: 'First of all, we're at the highest level of the U.S. government. The people that will answer those questions are the people at the other end of the military pyramid. I'm sure the Special Forces group is conducting – I know they're conducting an investigation. That investigation, of course, under the auspices of AFRICOM. Ultimately it will go to the Pentagon.' 'I've read the same stories you have, I actually know a lot more than I'm letting on, but I'm not going to tell you. There's an investigation being done. But as I say, the men and women of our country that are serving all around the world – I mean, you know, what the hell is my son doing back in the fight? He's back in the fight because, working with Iraqi soldiers who are infinitely better than they were a few years ago to take on ISIS directly so hat we don't have to do it. Small numbers of Marines where he is, working alongside those guys. That's why they're out there. 'Whether it's Niger, Iraq or whatever. We don't want to send tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines in particular to go fight. 'I'll take one more. But it's got to be from someone who knows – all right.' REPORTER: 'General, when you talk about Niger, sir, what does your intelligence tell you about the Russian connection with them and what – the stories coming out now?' GEN. KELLY: 'I'm not in a position to know that. That's a question for NORTHCOM or for – not NORTHCOM, for AFRICOM or D.O.D. So thanks very much. 'As I walk off the stage, understand there's tens of thousands of American kids, mostly, doing the nation's bidding all around the world. They don't have to be in uniform. You know, when I was a kid, every man in my life who was a veteran – World War II, Korea, and there was the draft. These young people today, they don't do it for any other reason than their selfless, sense of selfless devotion to this great nation. 'We don't look down upon those of you that haven't served. In fact, in a way we're a little bit sorry, because you'll never have experienced the wonderful joy you get in your heart when you do the kind of things our servicemen and women do. Not for any other reason than they love this country. 'So just think of that. And I appreciate your time. thank you.'