On Memorial Day Answering the Question: Was Sacrifice Worth It? By Jim Michaels, USA Today
As a senior Marine officer, Gen. John Kelly regularly visited hospitals and spoke to families whose loved ones were injured or killed in combat.
Often those families would quietly approach him and ask if the sacrifice was worth it.
At the time, Kelly didn't have an answer.
"My sense then was it is inconceivable for anyone to understand that has not had his or her heart pierced with such sadness," Kelly said Monday during a Memorial Day speech at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.
In 2010, Kelly learned that his own son, Marine 2nd Lt. Robert Kelly, 29, was killed while leading his platoon in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
The elder Kelly found himself struggling with the same question that families had asked him: Was it worth it? …