[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 132, 115th Congress, 2nd Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
Proclamation 9830 of December 1, 2018

Announcing the Death of George Herbert Walker Bush

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES:
It is my sorrowful duty to announce officially the death of George
Herbert Walker Bush, the forty-first President of the United States, on
November 30, 2018.
President Bush led a great American life, one that combined and
personified two of our Nation's greatest virtues: an entrepreneurial
spirit and a commitment to public service. Our country will greatly miss
his inspiring example.
On the day he turned 18, 6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor,
George H.W. Bush volunteered for combat duty in the Second World War.
The youngest aviator in United States naval history at the time, he flew
58 combat missions, including one in which, after taking enemy fire, he
parachuted from his burning plane into the Pacific Ocean. After the war,
he returned home and started a business. In his

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words, ``the big thing''; he learned from this endeavor was ``the
satisfaction of creating jobs.'';
The same unselfish spirit that motivated his business pursuits later
inspired him to resume the public service he began as a young man.
First, as a member of Congress, then as Ambassador to the United
Nations, Chief of the United States Liaison Office in China, Director of
Central Intelligence, Vice President, and finally President of the
United States, George H.W. Bush guided our Nation through the Cold War,
to its peaceful and victorious end, and into the decades of prosperity
that have followed. Through sound judgment, practical wisdom, and steady
leadership, President Bush made safer the second half of a tumultuous
and dangerous century.
Even with all he accomplished in service to our Nation, President Bush
remained humble. He never believed that government--even when under his
own leadership--could be the source of our Nation's strength or its
greatness. America, he rightly told us, is illuminated by ``a thousand
points of light,''; ``ethnic, religious, social, business, labor union,
neighborhood, regional and other organizations, all of them varied,
voluntary and unique''; in which Americans serve Americans to build and
maintain the greatest Nation on the face of the Earth. President Bush
recognized that these communities of people are the true source of
America's strength and vitality.
It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of one of America's
greatest points of light, the death of President George H.W. Bush.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of
America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of President
George H.W. Bush, and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby
direct that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff at
the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military
posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal
Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States
and its Territories and possessions for a period of 30 days from the day
of his death. I also direct that, for the same length of time, the
representatives of the United States in foreign countries shall make
similar arrangements for the display of the flag at half-staff over
their embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities
abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and
stations.
I hereby order that suitable honors be rendered by units of the Armed
Forces under orders of the Secretary of Defense.
I do further appoint December 5, 2018, as a National Day of Mourning
throughout the United States. I call on the American people to assemble
on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage
to the memory of President George H.W. Bush. I invite the people of the
world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of
December, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-
third.
DONALD J. TRUMP