[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: GEORGE W. BUSH (2001, Book I)]
[June 6, 2001]
[Pages 618-620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Dedication of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, 
Virginia
June 6, 2001

    Thank you all very much. At ease, and be seated. Thank you for that 
warm welcome.
    Governor Gilmore, thank you so 
very much for your friendship and your leadership here in the 
Commonwealth of Virginia. Lieutenant Governor Hager and Attorney General Earley, 
thank you, as well, for your hospitality.
    I'm honored to be traveling today with Secretary Principi, Veterans Affairs Department. I'm honored to be 
traveling today with two fantastic United States Senators from the 
Commonwealth of Virginia, Senator Warner and 
Senator Allen. Congressmen Goode and Goodlatte are here, as 
well. Thank you for your presence. The Ambassador from France--it's a pleasure to see him, and thank you 
for your kind words. Delegate Putney, 
Chaplain Sessions, Bob 
Slaughter, Richard Burrow, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans. I'm 
honored to be here today to dedicate this memorial. And this is a proud 
day for the people of Virginia and for the people of the United States. 
I'm honored to share it with you, on behalf of millions of Americans.
    We have many World War II and D-day veterans with us today, and 
we're honored by your presence. We appreciate your example, and thank 
you for coming. And let it be recorded, we're joined by one of the most 
distinguished of them all, a man who arrived at Normandy by glider with 
the 82d Airborne Division, a man who serves America to this very hour. 
Please welcome Maj. Gen. Strom Thurmond. 
[Applause]
    You have raised a fitting memorial to D-day, and you have put it in 
just the right place, not on a battlefield of war but in a small 
Virginia town, a place like so many others that were home to the men and 
women who help liberate a continent.
    Our presence here, 57 years removed from that event, gives testimony 
to how much was gained and how much was lost--what was gained that first 
day was a beach and then a village and then a country. And, in time, all 
of western Europe would be freed from fascism and its armies.
    The achievement of Operation Overlord is nearly impossible to 
overstate, in its consequences for our own lives and the life of the 
world. Free societies in Europe can be traced to the first footprints on 
the first beach on June 6, 1944.
    What was lost on D-day we can never measure and never forget. When 
the day was over, America and her Allies had lost at least 2,500 of the 
bravest men ever to wear a uniform. Many thousands more would die on the 
days that followed. They scaled towering cliffs, looking straight up 
into enemy fire. They dropped into grassy fields sown with landmines. 
They overran machine gun nests hidden everywhere,

[[Page 619]]

punched through walls of barbed wire, overtook bunkers of concrete and 
steel. The great journalist Ernie Pyle said, ``It seemed to me a pure 
miracle that we ever took the beach at all. The advantages were all 
theirs, the disadvantages all ours. And yet,'' said Pyle, ``we got on.''
    A father and his son both fell during Operation Overlord. So did 33 
pairs of brothers, including a boy having the same name as his hometown, 
Bedford T. Hoback, and his brother, Raymond. Their sister, 
Lucille, is with us today. She has 
recalled that Raymond was offered an early discharge for health reasons, 
but he turned it down. ``He didn't want to leave his brother,'' she 
remembers. ``He had come over with him, and he was going to stay with 
him.'' Both were killed on D-day. The only trace of Raymond Hoback was 
his Bible, found in the sand. Their mother asked that Bedford be laid to 
rest in France with Raymond, so that her sons might always be together.
    Perhaps some of you knew Gordon White, Sr. He died here just a few 
years ago, at the age of 95, the last living parent of a soldier who 
died on D-day. His boy, Henry, loved his days on the family farm and was 
especially fond of a workhorse named Major. Family members recall how 
Gordon just couldn't let go of Henry's old horse, and he never did. For 
25 years after the war, Major was cherished by Gordon White as a last 
link to his son and a link to another life.
    Upon this beautiful town fell the heaviest share of American losses 
on D-day, 19 men from a community of 3,200, 4 more afterwards. When 
people come here, it is important to see the town as the monument 
itself. Here were the images these soldiers carried with them and the 
thought of when they were afraid. This is the place they left behind, 
and here was the life they dreamed of returning to. They did not yearn 
to be heroes. They yearned for those long summer nights again and 
harvest time and paydays. They wanted to see Mom and Dad again and hold 
their sweethearts or wives or, for one young man who lived here, to see 
that baby girl born while he was away.
    Bedford has a special place in our history. But there were 
neighborhoods like these all over America, from the smallest villages to 
the greatest cities. And somehow they all produced a generation of young 
men and women who, on a date certain, gathered and advanced as one and 
changed the course of history. Whatever it is about America that has 
given us such citizens, it is the greatest quality we have, and may it 
never leave us.
    In some ways, modern society is very different from the nation that 
the men and women of D-day knew, and it is sometimes fashionable to take 
a cynical view of the world. But when the calendar reads the 6th of 
June, such opinions are better left unspoken. No one who has heard and 
read about the events of D-day could possibly remain a cynic. Army 
Private Andy Rooney was there to survey the 
aftermath. A lifetime later he would write, ``If you think the world is 
selfish and rotten, go to the cemetery at Colleville overlooking Omaha 
Beach. See what one group of men did for another on D-day, June 6, 
1944.''
    Fifty-three hundred ships and landing craft, 1,500 tanks, 12,000 
airplanes, but in the end, it came down to this: Scared and brave kids 
by the thousands who kept fighting and kept climbing and carried out 
General Eisenhower's order of the day--nothing short of complete 
victory.
    For us, nearly six decades later, the order of the day is gratitude. 
Today we give thanks for all that was gained on the beaches of Normandy. 
We remember what was lost with respect, admiration, and love.
    The great enemies of that era have vanished. And it is one of 
history's remarkable turns that so many young men from the New World 
would cross the sea to help liberate the Old. Beyond the peaceful 
beaches and quiet cemeteries lies a Europe whole and free, a continent 
of democratic

[[Page 620]]

governments and people more free and hopeful than ever before. This 
freedom and these hopes are what the heroes of D-day fought and died 
for. And these, in the end, are the greatest monuments of all to the 
sacrifices made that day.
    When I go to Europe next week, I will reaffirm the ties that bind 
our nations in a common destiny. These are the ties of friendship and 
hard experiences. They have seen our nations through a World War and a 
cold war. Our shared values and experiences must guide us now in our 
continued partnership and in leading the peaceful democratic revolution 
that continues to this day.
    We have learned that when there is conflict in Europe, America is 
affected and cannot stand by. We have learned as well, in the years 
since the war, that America gains when Europe is united and peaceful.
    Fifty-seven years ago today, America and the nations of Europe 
formed a bond that has never been broken. And all of us incurred a debt 
that can never be repaid. Today, as America dedicates our D-Day 
Memorial, we pray that our country will always be worthy of the courage 
that delivered us from evil and saved the free world.
    God bless America, and God bless the World War II generation.

Note: The President spoke at 1:10 p.m. at the memorial. In his remarks, 
he referred to Gov. James S. Gilmore III, Lt. Gov. John Hager, and 
former Attorney General Mark L. Earley of Virginia; Francois Bujon de 
l'Estang, French Ambassador to the United States; Lacey E. Putney, 
delegate, Virginia House of Delegates; Col. David C. Sessions, USAF, 
chaplain, 20th Fighter Wing; John Robert Slaughter, chairman, board of 
directors, and Richard B. Burrow, president, National D-Day Memorial 
Foundation; Lucille Hoback Boggess, whose brothers, Bedford T. and 
Raymond Hoback, were killed in Operation Overlord; and journalist Andy 
Rooney.