McCrystal, Chelsea Clinton push for community service in Gettysburg

(Gettysburg) — Leaders from across the country are trying to figure out how to change the conversation about volunteering and service in the U-S.“Our Unfinished Work”, a conference underway in Gettysburg, comes from an idea from retired General Stanley McCrystal, and runs through Friday.

The four star general first pushed the idea of service at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival, noting fewer than one percent of the U.S. population is serving in the military.

During a panel discussion, he pushed leaders from service organizations to brainstorm better ways to collaborate, encourage more service, and develop a more unified message.

“If you say my son, daughter, father, mother, whoever is in the service, to too many people that means uniformed military only and that can’t be the case, because service is service to Americans, it’s service to the world,” says McCrystal.

The former commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan says one way to change the conversation could involve talking with Hollywood script writers to offer more accurate and complete portrayals of those serving in many different areas.

“Only in a coalition are we gonna make a difference. Only in a coalition from all the organizations to include now military and former military, are we going to get this over the hump. It’s just too heavy a lift without that,” says McCrystal.

He says service has come to mean going into the military, and that needs to change.

The conference runs through Friday, and features a long list of notable panelists, including theCEO of the Special Olympics, the Head of Social Impact at LinkedIN, and a former U.S. Secretary of Transportation.