The first truth for special operations is that quality is more important than quantity.

I had seen the films out of World War II, the great 82nd Airborne, the 101st, and all of those of you in the greatest generation and the service that you had provided.

My goal was to make first lieutenant. I never spent a lot of time worrying about what came after that.

The first truth for special operations is that quality is more important than quantity.

And so I'm still giving some thought. I will transition, hopefully, into the corporate world. And I look forward to getting involved in several other areas that I have a great interest in.

I feel very confident that Americans flying in the air are safe, and that only under the most dire of circumstances would our pilots even request permission to do that.

They were involved in a firefight and felt they were surrounded. Whether they escaped from that and were fleeing and went in the wrong direction, we don't know.