[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book I)]
[May 23, 1994]
[Pages 976-977]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Congressional Medal of 
Honor
May 23, 1994

    To the distinguished leaders of the military and the Congress who 
are here, family and friends of the two men on whom we will confer the 
Nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor, Master Sergeant 
Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart were real American 
heroes.
    During the military operation in Mogadishu on October 3d, two 
American helicopters were downed by hostile fire. Although United States 
Army Rangers established a defensive perimeter around the first downed 
helicopter, they could not reach the second one quickly by land. In the 
wreckage of this helicopter lay four injured Army crewmen.
    Another helicopter with Sergeants Gordon and Shughart on board was 
dispatched to provide cover from above. But they came under withering 
fire, and the two sergeants instinctively understood that if the downed 
crew was to stand a chance of survival someone would have to get them on 
the ground. Immediately Sergeants Gordon and Shughart volunteered to go. 
They were told, no, it's too dangerous. They volunteered again. Again, 
they were told no. They volunteered a third time, and permission finally 
was granted.
    Sergeants Gordon and Shughart knew their own chances of survival 
were extremely bleak. The pilot of their helicopter said that anyone in 
their right mind would never have gone in. But they insisted on it 
because they were comrades in danger, because they believed passionately 
in the creed that says, ``I will not fail those with whom I serve.'' And 
so they asked their pilot to hover just above the ground, and they 
jumped into the ferocious firefight.
    The citations that will be read shortly describe the extraordinary 
courage that Sergeants Gordon and Shughart demonstrated in the battle 
that followed. Gary Gordon and Randall Shughart died in the most 
courageous and selfless way any human being can act. They risked their 
lives without hesitation. They gave their lives to save others. Their 
actions were clearly above and beyond the call of duty.
    Today, on behalf of the United States Congress, I award them both 
the Medal of Honor. They join a roll of heroes that includes soldiers 
like Sergeant York, Audie Murphy, Jimmie Doolittle, Teddy Roosevelt, 
Jr., Senator Kerrey, and only some 3,000 others across more than two 
centuries of our Nation's history.
    We will remember Sergeants Gordon and Shughart not only as heroes 
who fell in battle but as good men who loved their families. Randall 
Shughart was raised on a dairy farm. He loved the outdoors. He and his 
wife, Stephanie, planned to build a log cabin in Montana for their 
retirement. Gary Gordon was a gentle father who filled notebooks with 
stories for his two young children. He dreamed of starting a furniture-
making shop with his wife, Carmen.
    Both were men whose dreams and generous hearts we can never 
adequately portray. Both were quiet men whose steadiness gave strength

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to all who knew them. Both would probably feel a bit uncomfortable about 
being the center of so much attention. We were just doing our job, they 
would probably say, a job they loved and a job they had plainly 
mastered.
    Of course, there is little we can do to ease the pain, the sense of 
loss that their loved ones feel. We know they will live in the memories 
of those whose lives they touched. We pray that their families will find 
strength in their faiths during this time and in the times to come. But 
we can also draw comfort from the words of the pilot they saved, Chief 
Warrant Officer Michael Durant. ``Without a doubt,'' he says, ``I owe my 
life to these two men and their bravery.''
    Sergeants Gordon and Shughart died on October 3d for a noble and 
important cause, to give Durant and others a chance to live. They were 
part of a larger mission, a difficult one, that saved hundreds of 
thousands of innocent Somalis from starvation and gave that nation a 
chance to build its own future.
    Only America could assume and accomplish such a mission. It is a 
part of who we are as a people, what we are as a nation, why we are 
trusted and respected around the globe. And that, too, is a part of our 
national security. As I said when I welcomed home members of the 10th 
Mountain Division at Fort Drum, if there are any debates still to be had 
about our mission in Somalia, let people have those debates where they 
belong, with the President and the policymakers. But let there be no 
debate about the professionalism and the valor of those who served there 
and the valor of those who died there. We are proud of what they did. We 
honor them. We thank them.
    On the wall of the Special Forces Memorial Court at Ft. Bragg, the 
words of the prophet Isaiah are etched in stone: ``I heard the voice of 
the Lord saying, `Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?''' Master 
Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randall Shughart answered 
that call.
    Today, we inscribe their lives and their deeds in the distinguished 
and valorous history of this country's men and women in uniform. We pray 
that God will embrace their souls. And may their service and sacrifice 
inspire generations to come.

Note: The President spoke at 11:07 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House.