    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [February 17, 1995]
    [Pages 220-222]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Salute to African-American Veterans
    February 17, 1995

        Ladies and gentlemen, Secretary Perry, Secretary Brown, General
    Shalikashvili, General Powell, General Davison, Admiral Gravely, Ossie
    Davis, Colonel Earley.
        I hate to throw any cold water on this magnificent night, but I'm
    just sitting here thinking whether as Commander in Chief I should
    dismiss or simply demote whoever it was who arranged for me to speak
    after Colonel Earley. [Laughter] If ever there was an embodiment of what
    we came here to celebrate tonight, if ever there was evidence that this
    celebration is occurring at least 50 years too late, it is Colonel
    Earley.
        Tonight we celebrate the extraordinary history of patriotism of our
    Nation's African-American citizens, whose courage and devotion to
    country helped to raise the consciousness of a nation, and through years
    and decades and centuries to reverse a tragic legacy of discrimination.
    His-

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    tory records their great deeds, and we have honored them tonight.
        We can only marvel at the dedication that they manifested year-in
    and year-out, war-in and war-out, from the first days of the Republic,
    in spite of all that they were denied under the Constitution and laws.
    In spite of being treated as second-class soldiers, segregated from
    their peers, with second-class training, too often with rifles that
    jammed or misfired, sometimes shamefully harassed by comrades, still
    they served:
        Peter Salem, who fired the shot that killed the leader of the
    British forces at Bunker Hill, served in the Revolutionary War.
        Sergeant Alfred Hilton, under the withering fire outside Richmond
    during the Civil War, picked up the Union flag from its fallen bearer
    and carried it further into battle until he, too, fell, mortally
    wounded. You should know that today, that soldier's great-grandnephew,
    Steve Hilton, upholds his tradition of service to the country as a
    captain in the Army Reserve and a member of the White House senior
    staff.
        The 369th Infantry Regiment in France during the First World War,
    whose French commander said they never lost a prisoner, a trench, or a
    foot of ground.
        But it was during World War II, as we saw tonight, when our country
    was forced to marshal all its resources, to call forth every ounce of
    its strength, that African-Americans in our Armed Forces made
    contributions that would literally save the world from tyranny and
    change the course of our Nation at home. Time and again, from the far
    reaches of the Pacific to the very heart of Europe, the more than one
    million African-Americans in uniform distinguished themselves as P-40
    fighter pilots and Navy Seabees, Sherman tank drivers, orderlies, and
    engineers.
        You've heard the stirring story of Dorie Miller, a steward aboard
    the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, who saw his captain fall wounded and
    pulled him to safety. And then, despite the fire, he manned a machine
    gun and downed two enemy planes.
        At Iwo Jima, the African-American marines of the 16th Field Depot,
    working as stretcher bearers, braved shells and bullets and mines to
    pull their comrades back from the frontlines when they were wounded.
        At the Battle of the Bulge the men of the 3496th Truck Company
    hauled weapons, soldiers, and prisoners down roads that the rain had
    turned into rivers of mud and ice. They unloaded their 2\1/2\-ton trucks
    as mortars fell all around them. And even today, 50 years later, their
    commander, Colonel Benjamin Layton, says he can still feel the driving
    snow and the deadening cold of the Ardennes. He's with us tonight, and
    we honor him and those like him who served their Nation so well. Thank
    you, Colonel Layton.
        And I, too, must say just a word about the legendary Tuskegee
    Airmen, who flew over 1,500 combat missions and never lost a single
    bomber under their escort. Some of them are here with us tonight,
    including Second Lieutenant Luther Smith, who was forced to bail out
    over Yugoslavia after a successful attack on an ammunition dump, where
    he was captured and interned as a POW in Austria. He entered that camp
    weighing 150 pounds. Six months later when the British forces liberated
    him, he was down to 70 pounds. But he survived, and he's here. God bless
    you, sir.
        After the war, after winning the victories over fascism and
    intolerance, these heroes came home to a nation that still could not
    shed its habits of hatred and bigotry. A mayor and a city marshal pulled
    a young black sergeant from a bus in South Carolina and beat him blind.
    A mob gang in Georgia dragged a newly returned veteran and his wife from
    their car and shot them so savagely they could scarcely be identified.
    These and other horrible acts of violence done to our African-American
    veterans moved President Truman to desegregate the military and put
    forward the most sweeping civil rights legislation our country had then
    known.
        So it was that in Korea and Vietnam, African-Americans were able to
    serve shoulder to shoulder with soldiers of all races for the first
    time. Beamed by television into America's living rooms, images of their
    camaraderie and shared sacrifice helped our Nation to act on a truth too
    long denied: that if people of different races could serve as brothers
    abroad, putting their lives on the line together for this country,
    surely, surely at last they could live as neighbors at home.
        It is a measure of the progress we have made as a people that today
    many of our most revered military leaders are African-Americans. Admiral
    Gravely and General Davison came in with me tonight. I was proud to look
    up here at the beginning of the program and see the Com-

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    mander of our district here, General Gorden. And of course, we heard the
    220-year saga tonight that led from Crispus Attucks to General Colin
    Powell.
        Today I say to you ladies and gentlemen who have served us in
    uniform, at last our children, without regard to their race, see in you
    nothing more and nothing less than what you are: American heroes in the
    proud tradition of George Washington, John Pershing, and George
    Marshall. You have earned their way into the Nation's hearts, and you
    are there now forever and ever.
        Tonight let me salute you for many things but most of all for never
    giving up on America. Finally, finally, in the military your country is
    worthy of you, worthy of the words of the Constitution and the Bill of
    Rights, worthy of the sacrifice that you and your forebears have given.
    Let us never forget it. And let us now say: Wouldn't it be nice if the
    rest of America worked together as well as the United States military?
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:13 p.m. at Constitution Hall. In his
    remarks, he referred to Gen. Colin Powell, USA, Ret.; Maj. Gen.
    Frederick Davison, USA, Ret.; Vice Adm. Samuel L. Gravely, Jr., USN,
    Ret.; Ossie Davis, narrator of the salute; Mrs. Charity Adam Earley,
    former Lieutenant Colonel, Women's Army Corps; and Maj. Gen. Fred
    Gorden, Commander, Military District of Washington. .