THE HILL: Mattis praises sailors: ‘You’re not some p—- sitting on the sidelines.’

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis offered some salty words of encouragement to submarine sailors during remarks at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington state, according to the Pentagon’s official transcript of the speech.

Mattis thanked the sailors of the USS Kentucky Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine for their service during the August 9 speech.

“You will have some of the best days of your life and some of the worst days of your life in the U.S. Navy, you know what I mean? That says – that means you’re living. That means you’re living,” Mattis said at a troop event.

“That means you’re not some p—- sitting on the sidelines, you know what I mean, kind of sitting there saying, ‘Well, I should have done something with my life.’ Because of what you’re doing now, you’re not going to be laying on a shrink’s couch when you’re 45 years old, say ‘What the hell did I do with my life?’ Why? Because you served others; you served something bigger than you.”

The former Marine Corps general added that he wished he were “young enough to go back out to sea,” but joked, “there’s a world of difference between a submariner and a Marine, you know what I mean?”

“I spent seven days underwater once on a submarine so small it’d fit in half of this thing, and I was never so happy as when I got back to the surface,” he added.

Heh.