    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [May 8, 1998]
    [Pages 729-731]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community at Dover Air Force Base
    May 8, 1998

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your wonderful remarks and your sterling leadership of
    the Department of Defense. To Governor Carper and
    Congressman Castle, Colonel
    Grieder, Colonel Keitel, Mayor Hutchinson; to the
    Secretary of Education, Dick Riley, who is
    here with me today; to all the members of the United States Air Force,
    their families, their friends, and thank you especially for bringing the
    children today. And I'd like to say a special word of thanks to the
    Dover High School Band for their welcome and their music. I don't know
    if the recruiting officer has been to see them, but they have sufficient
    enthusiasm to be in our military service. Great job.
        I am delighted to be here, back at Dover Air Force Base, home of the
    436th Military Airlift Wing and the 512th Reserve Wing, those of you who
    work around the clock to support and defend our freedom. I've already
    had a chance to be on the C-5 and speak with some of you individually.
    I'd like now to say a few words to all of you.
        Delaware calls itself ``Small Wonder.'' It's not too small, however,
    to have two leading United States Senators, Bill Roth and Joe Biden, who play
    very important roles in our national security, most recently in leading
    the struggle in the Senate to make Europe a safer place by guiding NATO
    and offering membership to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The
    people of Delaware can be very proud that they have two Senators playing
    a leading role in such an important national security area.
        And Delaware is not too small to house these mammoth C-5's to do so
    much of America's heavy lifting, not too small for a new 60,000-pound
    Tunner loader moving heavy cargo on and off the giant planes. I know
    it's hard for the logistics people here to wrestle with those pallets,
    but hopefully the new loader makes things just a little easier.
        Your efforts are essential. We live in a time of enormous promise,
    but you know from your own work that there is also a tremendous
    responsibility for the United States out there both to take advantage of
    the promise and to meet the challenges of the post-cold-war era.
        From Guatemala to Mozambique, from Bosnia and now to Ireland, peace
    is taking hold in countries and regions that have endured terrible
    violence. Revolutions in technology and

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    communications are spurring enterprise and opportunity all across the
    globe. Today we saw that the unemployment rate in America has dropped to
    4.3 percent, the lowest since 1970. And that's good news for America.
        But one-third of our growth, one-third of the over 15.2 million jobs
    the American people have enjoyed--new jobs--since 1993, comes from our
    trading relations with other countries. Like it or not, our future and
    the future of every child in this audience today is bound up with our
    ability to maintain leadership for peace and freedom and security and
    opportunity throughout the world.
        In March, I was in Africa. I visited Uganda, not so long ago run by
    a brutal dictator, now a country with strong economic growth and a
    commitment to educating all its children. I was in Senegal, where
    American soldiers are working with African soldiers to establish new
    peacekeeping units run by Africans in Africa, to support their
    continent's security. I was in South Africa, where citizens are building
    a strong, multiracial democracy. And guess what? On my whole trip, you
    provided the transportation, you provided the helicopters, and you
    provided the communications. I thank you. The trip to Africa was good
    for America.
        Last month, I was in Chile, once ruled by terror, now a thriving
    open society, at the second Summit of the Americas, after the first one
    I convened in 1994 in Miami. Thirty-four of the thirty-five nations of
    the Americas are now democracies, and we plotted a common future in the
    area where our trade is growing the most and where freedom has taken
    deepest hold. And guess what? You provided my transportation and
    communication, and I thank you.
        In a few days I will leave for Europe, where the powerful yearning
    of the people for liberty has provided the chance not only to end the
    war in Bosnia, but through expanding NATO and making an agreement
    between NATO and Russia and NATO and Ukraine, we've now got the chance
    to build a Europe that is peaceful, undivided, and free for the first
    time in all of history. It will be a very important meeting, and if
    nothing happens to the chain of command, you're going to provide my
    transportation and communication, and I thank you for that.
        Because freedom is on the march and because of all the changes going
    on in the world, the 21st century in which these children will grow up
    will be America's greatest time, if we do our part to protect freedom
    and security, to stand for human rights, and to stand for our interests
    and our values around the world. For the world is still not free of
    dangers, not by a long shot.
        All of you know that, clearly. In fact, all of the openness, the
    communications revolution, what all you can find on the Internet, all of
    the things that have given so much opportunity in the world and brought
    us so much closer together have created a new vulnerability to the
    organized forces of destruction, to the terrorists, the organized
    criminals, the narcotraffickers. We still see the incredible power--the
    flaming power of religious, ethnic, and regional conflicts and hatreds.
    We know that not all of our democracies are solid. We know that natural
    disasters, environmental destruction, the spread of disease can cross
    national borders and threaten the lives and welfare of the American
    people.
        In this environment, our leadership is more important than ever. In
    order to make the American people safe at home and give them all a
    brighter future, the United States must continue to lead in the world,
    and that means we need you more than ever.
        Here at Dover, you are leading the way. A strategic airlift capacity
    is crucial to our strategy of global engagement, and you are responsible
    for a full 25 percent of America's strategic airlift. You supply our
    troops in the Persian Gulf, and Saddam Hussein knows we're serious because our diplomacy is backed by
    the finest military in the world. We could not send them there and keep
    them there if you couldn't supply them.
        You led the way by helping to prevent the spread of weapons of mass
    destruction. Just 3 weeks ago, two of your C-5's and their crews secured
    dangerous nuclear material in the Republic of Georgia and transported it
    for safekeeping to the United Kingdom. The material could have posed a
    tremendous risk if it had come into the wrong hands. You made sure that
    it didn't. And now you know it's someplace safe, and we're all more
    secure because of it. I thank you for that.
        You supply our troops in Bosnia, where, with a remarkable lack of
    violence, we have been able to see the end of a conflict and the
    beginning of a peace taking hold. If our troops hadn't been there, the
    war would still be raging. They couldn't be there without you, and you
    should

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    be very, very proud of helping to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe
    since the end of World War II. I hope you are.
        You lead the way in providing humanitarian relief to people in the
    former Soviet Union. When a ferocious typhoon struck Guam, you brought
    water and blankets and electricity to people there. When flooding
    destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the homes around Grand Forks, North
    Dakota, you brought relief and comfort to the victims there. For all
    that, for the many sacrifices you make, I want to say a profound thank
    you.
        As most of you know, this Tunner loader that everybody talked to me
    about today is not called a Tunner because it lifts a lot of tons. It
    was named for the late General William Tunner, who commanded three
    historic airlifts: the airlift of supplies and personnel over the
    Himalayan Hump from India to China in World War II; the massive Berlin
    airlift in 1948 and '49, 277,000 flights that supplied food and fuel to
    the people of West Berlin during Stalin's blockade; and the Korean War
    Combat Cargo Command, which airdropped supplies to our troops trapped in
    North Korea. General Tunner said, ``We can carry anything, anywhere,
    anytime.''
        Now, next week, by coincidence, I will be in Germany to commemorate
    the 50th anniversary of the Berlin airlift. Like you, the people who
    were involved in that effort used airlifts to protect freedom. When the
    Soviet leaders finally abandoned the blockade, it might have been
    because they had witnessed our staggering capabilities to airlift
    supplies to the people in West Berlin. Perhaps it was because they read
    what General Tunner said about his supply line: ``We can keep pouring it
    on for 20 years if we have to.'' That kind of confidence I know
    invigorates the work you do here. I know you are ready for any challenge
    anytime, whenever America calls for your help.
        So let me just say this in closing. When your joints ache from
    muscling pallets, when you've stared at one load plan too many, when you
    fly all night through turbulent skies, when you're too far from home and
    you wonder sometimes what you are doing it for, please remember, in ways
    large and small, you are making a huge difference in making the world a
    better place for the children that share this roof with us today.
    Children all over the world have food to eat, clothes to wear, safe
    streets to walk, all because you at Dover make it happen. You deliver.
    You are essential to America's security. You make this a better country,
    and you make us all very proud.
        Thank you very much, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 3:25 p.m. in Hangar 706. In his remarks, he
    referred to Col. Felix Grieder, USAF, Commander, 436th Airlift Wing, and
    Col. Tom Keitel, USAFR, Acting Commander, 512th Airlift Wing.