    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [September 2, 1995]
    [Pages 1284-1286]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Wreath-Laying Ceremony Aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson in
    Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
    September 2, 1995

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Admiral Fluckey, for your kind words
    and far more for your astonishing service to our country. Secretary
    Dalton, Secretary Perry, Secretary Brown, Admiral Boorda, Admiral Macke,
    Admiral Zlatoper, Admiral Moorer, Admiral Moore, Cap-

    [[Page 1285]]

    tain Baucom, to all the distinguished veterans who are here from the
    United States Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, and the merchant
    marine; to the crew of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson: It's good to be back. I
    was on board in San Francisco in August of 1993, and now I have two of
    these caps which I can proudly wear around the United States.
        Fifty years ago today, on the other side of this Pacific Ocean, the
    war ended. It was a war that erupted in smoke and horror aboard the
    battleship Arizona and concluded with peace and honor aboard the
    battleship Missouri. Today we gather to offer a commemoration and to
    renew a commitment. We commemorate the men and women of the Navy, the
    Marine Corps, and their sister services who gave everything they had to
    the cause of freedom. And we commit ourselves to their legacy by meeting
    the great demands of this age with the same determination and fortitude.
        More than 2,000 years ago, Pericles gave a funeral oration in which
    he said it was the actions of his fallen soldiers and not his own words
    that would stand as their memorial. Today we say the same about our own
    beloved war dead, and you, their brothers and sisters still living who
    served alongside them. Your deeds in the Pacific will forever remain the
    greatest tribute to the American naval services.
        Millions of sailors, aviators, submariners, and marines joined in
    the effort against Japan. They steered and stoked and flew and fought
    aboard thousands of ships and planes and boats. They were transported
    ashore by the Coast Guard, sustained by the merchant marine, supported
    by the WAVE's, and healed by the Medical Corps. You who served lived in
    a world of gray steel and saltwater, coarse sand and endless skies,
    violent rain and hard wind, white coral and precious red blood. Long
    days and endless nights passed between hard battles. But the frontline
    was usually no further away than the bow of your ship.
        The Pacific journey started where we stand today in Pearl Harbor,
    our darkest dawn. Here in the span of an hour, as they put out fires and
    struggled to save their ship, farm boys became sailors and teenagers
    grew into men. They fought in a war unlike any previous war, waged in
    places most Americans had never heard of, in disease-filled jungles and
    on an ocean we once thought too huge to fight across.
        It was a war of battles dominated by aircraft carriers, first at
    Coral Sea, then at Midway when a superior Japanese force was undone by
    American code-breaking and the courage of our pilots who dove into
    impossible odds to sink the enemy carriers.
        It was a war where, for the very first time, sailors, soldiers,
    aviators, and leathernecks all worked together. At Guadalcanal, the
    Navy, the Marines, and the Army began to turn the tide in freedom's
    favor. Before they were done, sunken ships had transformed the sea floor
    into a steel carpet. The surrounding waters actually were renamed ``Iron
    Bottom Sound.'' In the Gilberts, the Marshalls, the Marianas, the
    Carolines, amphibious forces shot to shore with a prayer and the cover
    of their comrades in the air and at sea.
        It was a war that required unparalleled courage: at Leyte, where PT
    boats took on cruisers, where battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor
    returned to break the back of the Japanese fleet; at Iwo Jima, where
    more than 6,800 marines gave their lives to have our flag snap in the
    wind atop Mount Suribachi; and finally, on Okinawa, the war's final and
    bloodiest struggle.
        In the Pacific, no two battles were the same, but each was fought
    for freedom. In the Pacific, our leaders were colorful and could not
    have been less alike, but they all shared a certain American greatness:
    Nimitz and Halsey, Spruance and Holland Smith, and Admiral Arleigh
    Burke, who honored me with his presence at dinner in Washington just a
    few weeks ago. And of course, behind them all was President Roosevelt,
    who had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy in World War I and who
    remained the guardian and inspiration to the Navy from his first day to
    his last as President.
        In the Pacific, each ship was an outpost of liberty. In the Pacific,
    every American demonstrated that, as Admiral Nimitz said, they had
    uncommon valor as a common virtue.
        In the Pacific, we won a war we had to win, but at a terrible cost
    of tens of thousands of lives never lived fully out. That sacrifice
    touches all of us today. But those of you here, more than anyone, who
    lost a shipmate or a friend, someone with whom you refueled a plane or
    scraped a railing or reloaded an overheated 40-millimeter gun, you
    endured. And the basic American values of courage, optimism,
    responsibility, and freedom all triumphed. And all of us are in your
    debt.

    [[Page 1286]]

        I would like to ask all the veterans of the Pacific war who are here
    to stand or, if you cannot stand, to wave your hand and be recognized.
    Please stand up. [Applause]
        We also owe you a very great deal because of what you did with your
    remarkable victory. You did not leave your ideals at the war's edge; you
    brought them home. You carried them to college on the GI bill and into
    work. And together, you created the most prosperous nation on Earth. You
    extended our vision across the globe to rebuild our allies and our
    former adversaries, to win the cold war, to advance the cause of peace
    and freedom.
        So to all of you who brought us from the Arizona to the Missouri,
    all of us who followed will always remember your commitment, your deeds,
    and your sacrifice. They are as constant as the tides and as vast as
    this great Pacific Ocean.
        May God bless you, and God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. on the flight deck. In his
    remarks, he referred to Rear Adm. Eugene Fluckey, USN (Ret.),
    Congressional Medal of Honor recipient; Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, USN,
    Chief of Naval Operations; Adm. Ronald J. Zlatoper, USN, Commander in
    Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet; Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, USN (Ret.), former
    Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Rear Adm. Edward Moore, Jr., USN,
    Commander, Cruiser Destroyer Group Three; and Capt. Larry C. Baucom,
    USN, Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Carl Vinson.