Neller emphasized to the Marines that they should remain ready to fight at all times, predicting a „big-ass fight“ on the horizon.

„I hope I‘m wrong, but there‘s a war coming,“ Neller said. “ … You‘re in a fight here, an informational fight, a political fight, by your presence.“

Neller later told the Marines that he expects the Pacific and Russia to be the service‘s operational points of focus as the nation looks beyond the fights in the Middle East that have stretched into the better part of two decades.