[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 21 (Monday, May 27, 1996)]
[Pages 904-907]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Funeral Service for Admiral Jeremy M. Boorda

May 21, 1996

    Mrs. Boorda, Mike's family, Secretary Christopher and our friends 
from the diplomatic corps, Secretary Perry, Secretary Dalton, General 
Shalikashvili, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, unified commanders 
in chief, the leadership and Members of Congress who are here, Admiral 
Johnson and the flag leadership of our Navy, Master Chief Petty Officer 
of the Navy Hagan; to our great Navy sailors and all of America's Armed 
Forces.
    Today we come to honor and give thanks for the life of Mike Boorda, 
a special man who earned a special place in the heart of his Navy and 
the heart of our Nation. He

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lived a life that makes America proud, beginning, of course, with his 
family. His first words upon becoming Chief of Naval Operations were, 
``I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Bettie, and I wouldn't want to be 
here without her.''
    To Bettie and David and Edward and Anna, your families, I know there 
is nothing we can say or do to ease the loss of your husband and father 
and grandfather. I hope you find comfort in the love and respect and 
honor that surrounds you today, here in this great cathedral and all 
throughout our great land.
    I thank you for your service to the Navy. I thank you, Bettie. I 
thank you, Edward and Robert, for your service. I thank you, David, for 
your work on the radio. I thank you, Anna, for your devotion and for 
your husband's service; and Edward, for your wife's service. But your 
entire family is a model, a reflection of Mike Boorda's remarkable love 
for the Navy, a Navy in which he enlisted when he was just 16.
    When he was first in his class at personnelman school in San Diego, 
he was offered his choice of assignments. Displaying his characteristic 
compassion, he traded the slot with a friend whose wife was sick and 
expecting a baby. So the friend got to stay in San Diego and Mike got 
shipped to Oklahoma. Oklahoma's coastline leaves something to be desired 
for people designing a career in the Navy. But it turned out to be a 
first-rate assignment because that's where he met Bettie.
    He was commissioned an officer in 1962. Then his star rose fast and 
bright, with important assignments, from weapons officer aboard 
destroyers to Chief of Naval Personnel, to commander in chief of our 
Naval forces in Europe and CINC of the Southern Command. And as all of 
you know, 2 years ago just last month, he became the very first enlisted 
man in the entire history of the United States Navy to be the Chief of 
Naval Operations.
    At every turn he led in helping us, our country, live up to its 
responsibilities as the world's leading force for freedom. He served two 
tours of duty in Southeast Asia. As has been said today, as commander in 
chief of Allied Forces in Southern Europe, he ordered the first 
offensive action in NATO's history, the strikes against Bosnian Serb 
aircraft violating the no-fly zone.
    I know his family is especially proud of the role he played and the 
role that they supported in getting food and relief to the war-torn 
people of Bosnia. I very much want history to record that Mike Boorda's 
quiet determination to do all we could do to end the slaughter of the 
children and the innocents in Bosnia and to bring that awful war to an 
end had a profound impact on his President and on the policy of this 
Nation.
    Even after he became Chief of Naval Operations, I continued to ask 
him what he thought we should do to get a reality check on the rest of 
the advice I was given. And I want to say to all of you what I said to 
his family this last weekend. It is my belief that perhaps more than any 
other military officer in this country, Mike Boorda helped to lead us to 
the point of peace at Dayton. And there are countless thousands of 
people alive in Bosnia today because of this small man with a big heart, 
a large vision, and great courage.
    He developed new strategies to carry our Navy into the 21st century. 
He spearheaded projects like theater ballistic missile defense and the 
arsenal ship that have put our Navy on the cutting edge of technology.
    Like all great sailors, he loved the sea, and he loved sea stories. 
The stories about him are legion and now legend. I'm told that when I 
nominated him to be the Chief of Naval Operations, he called his mother, 
Trudy Wallace, from Italy to tell her that he was about to become the 
CNO. She asked if it was a promotion. He said, ``No, I'm already a four-
star admiral.'' She asked if he were going to get a raise. He said, 
``No, I'll be making a little less, I'm losing my overseas living 
allowance.'' She then said, ``Well, surely you'll get a bigger house.'' 
And he said, ``Actually, it will be smaller than the Mediterranean villa 
we have now.''
    Apparently, his mother then said, ``Well, don't you have enough time 
in to retire?'' [Laughter] Now, every family has got a story like that. 
Well, he didn't get a raise or a promotion or a bigger house, but he got 
a bigger job, and he did his mother and his family and his country 
proud.

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    Many have said before me that his lasting legacy will be his concern 
for the sailors. He knew the people were the Navy's greatest asset. And 
every day he made the Navy stronger because he took good care of its 
sailors. He loved the bluejackets, and he loved the officers. When he 
came on board a ship or entered a room of sailors, you could see the 
twinkle in his eye. Without ever ranting or reprimanding, criticizing or 
cajoling, he found a way to bring out the best of everyone, seaman or 
admiral, boatswain mate to battle group commander. Talk to him for just 
a few moments, and you couldn't help but like him; you couldn't help but 
love our Navy even more and want to do the best you could for our 
country.
    He also understood that beyond the things that he fought for that 
were material for our men and women in uniform, beyond the better 
housing, the better pay, the better time at home with families, there 
was, above all, the importance of caring and compassion. Last year in 
Norfolk he spoke to a theater full of sailors. The chief machinist mate 
nervously stepped up to the microphone and explained his predicament. 
His wife had recently passed away, and he was left with two young 
daughters. He told the CNO that he had 6 months before his retirement 
date, but he would have to reenlist before then, and that meant more sea 
duty and separation from his children.
    Right there at the mike, the CNO asked, ``So you want to retire in 
June?'' The MMC meekly replied, ``Yes, sir.'' And right then and there, 
Admiral Boorda said, ``Your request is approved. We'll work it out.''
    The Admiral used to joke about being small in stature. Shortly after 
I named him Chief of Naval Operations, we were in the English Channel 
together, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion on 
the aircraft carrier the George Washington. And I spoke just as I am 
now, but I had the Presidential lectern there. And when I finished, he 
was coming up, so I pulled out the stand for him to stand on. And he got 
up, and he looked at me, and he said, ``You know, this is the second 
time you've elevated me in the last couple of months.'' [Laughter]
    Well, that's the kind of sense of honor he had. Even though he was 
very small, the rest of us always looked up to him, looked up to his 
ability somehow to inspire us all to do better, to reach beyond 
ourselves.
    There was reported in the press a Navy photographer's remarks I 
would like to repeat who said, ``Everyone was always asking me to take 
photos with him. They wanted to stand next to the best thing the Navy 
had.''
    Before I came over here today, I visited the Pentagon. And I went to 
the Navy Command Center to the briefing room that Admiral Boorda began 
his day in several times a week to thank the staff who worked with him 
every day and who can't be with us here today because they're on duty, 
as he would want them to be. And they were encouraged to tell me 
whatever they want. I thought you might be interested to know what those 
people who are now over at the Pentagon, doing the work they did every 
day for Mike Boorda, had to say to me.
    One said, ``There's a $5 bill over there on the wall. Do you see it, 
Mr. President?'' I said, ``Yes, I did.'' He said, ``That's the bet the 
Admiral had with the weatherman every time we had a briefing. He always 
bet against the weatherman. And as of the last bet, he was $5 ahead.'' 
Another said that every time there was a briefing in the morning, he 
brought in strips of bacon and literally shoved bacon at everyone else. 
He was always trying to share his bacon and make people laugh about it. 
A third said that the thing that meant the most to her was that at 
Christmastime he literally greeted every single sailor in the Pentagon. 
No matter how much time it took, that's what he did.
    A young sailor in the office said that the thing that moved her most 
was that she handled his correspondence, and he would never let her send 
a form letter. Even when someone wrote to him and went outside the chain 
of command, he would write a gentle letter back explaining what the 
chain of command was. But it was always a personal letter, so that the 
young sailor who wrote would know that the CNO really cared and really 
read the letter.
    And finally, one very large African-American sailor from the State 
of Tennessee stood up in the back of the room and he said, ``Mr.

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President, how can we ever replace this man?''
    In the Bible there is the great story of two warriors and friends, 
David and Jonathan. When they prepared to part, Jonathan said, 
``Tomorrow there is a new moon, and thou shalt be missed, because thy 
seat will be empty.'' Mike Boorda's seat is empty and how we shall miss 
his warm smile, his easy manner, his wonderful voice, his sharp wit. 
What a legacy he has left behind, his ferocious devotion to all of you, 
his commitment to give all of you a chance to be the very best that you 
can be, to give our country its chance for true greatness, his deep 
sense of honor, which no person should ever question.
    Now Mike Boorda's ship is moored. His voyage is complete. But I know 
when the whistle blew and the colors were shifted he was welcomed on the 
pier by God's loving eternal embrace. May God bless and cherish Admiral 
Mike Boorda as he blessed and cherished our lives and our beloved 
America.

Note: The President spoke at 12:26 p.m. at the Washington National 
Cathedral. In his remarks he referred to Admiral Jay L. Johnson, acting 
Chief of Naval Operations, and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy 
John P. Hagan.