[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 8 (Monday, February 27, 1995)]
[Pages 271-272]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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. 
History 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

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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 2.5 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 Commander 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 forbearers 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. This item was not 
received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.