[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1999)]
[Pages 1103-1105]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Illinois Air National Guard in Chicago

June 12, 1999

    Thank you very much. General Keistler, General Rezac, General 
Austin, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great honor for me to be here today 
with the men and women of the 126th Air Refueling Wing and its 
supporting units, the 217th Engineering and Installation Squadron, the 
264th Combat Communications Squadron, the 566th Air Force Band, with all 
the families and friends.
    I know this is an emotional day for you. This has been a very 
important installation to the people of Chicago. And when I told Hillary 
what I was doing today, she was very jealous that she couldn't be here 
with me, but she's in California bringing our daughter home from school. 
Those of you who've had your children go off to school know that's a 
pretty big day. But I am profoundly honored to be here at your final 
coming together before the Wing goes to Scott Air Force Base and others 
go to Peoria and to Springfield.
    I wanted to come here more than anything else to thank you for your 
many years of service. I know the people of Chicago will miss you and 
that they, too, are especially grateful for their Chicago Air Guard. You 
have been a very important part of the life of this city, as well as the 
defense of your country. I know many of you must be relieved that the 
transition is almost over, not to have to make the umpteenth trip 
between here and Belleville. But I wanted to say that as difficult as it 
might be, this move, I believe, will work out well for all concerned. It 
will clearly be good for the economy of the city of Chicago, for the Air 
National Guard, and for our military because, as all of you know, in 
order to maintain the quality of life of our service personnel and to 
have adequate funds for modernization to keep our forces ready to defend

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freedom, we have to streamline our infrastructure.
    I wanted to come here to help mark this turning point for you, 
again, mostly to say thanks, but especially to do so now, when you and 
other Air Guard members all across America have done so much to help our 
operation in Kosovo succeed. Thank you so much for a job very well done 
there. You should be proud of yourselves.
    I sometimes think the American people don't understand as much as 
they should about the role the Air Guard and our Reserve forces play in 
the defense of our country. You are an essential component in our total 
force. And in this case, once again America called on you, and you 
delivered. No one should be surprised. I think it is fitting to recall a 
little history at this last meeting.
    The 126th has risen to security challenges for generations. Your 
predecessor unit went to France in World War I and served with the 
American Expeditionary Force there. You provided vital air defense in 
World War II. You were the first Air Guard unit in America to take up 
the challenge of air refueling. You took to the skies in Desert Shield 
and Desert Storm. You supported our efforts for peace in Bosnia and 
contributed to humanitarian relief operations. For more than two decades 
you have had aircraft on full alert, ready to go anytime, anywhere, to 
provide refueling and airlift support. In Operation Allied Force, you 
did the job once again, readying these KC-135 Stratotankers, flying 
sortie after sortie, fueling NATO's efforts.
    Some of you may know that yesterday I went to Whiteman Air Force 
Base in Missouri to thank our B-2 pilots there. And all the B-2 pilots 
and their crews said repeatedly, ``We could never have done this if it 
hadn't been for the people who ran the refueling operations.'' So again 
I say, thank you, thank you, thank you.
    We prevailed in Operation Allied Force because of units like yours 
and the others in the United States military and those of our allies. 
But I would like to say today to you what I said yesterday in Whiteman. 
In addition to your power, I appreciate the power of your example. 
Troops from all across our NATO nations speak different languages, from 
different ethnic and religious backgrounds they come, they stand side by 
side for a world of justice and tolerance. But especially the American 
military reflects the kaleidoscope of peoples, the races, the tribes, 
the ethnic groups, the religious convictions that are increasingly being 
brought into closer and closer contact in this world.
    Here in Chicago it is very important for me to say again, we have no 
quarrel with the Serbian people. They were our allies in World War II, 
and they fought bravely. And this country has been immensely enriched by 
the contributions of Serbian-Americans. I know and am very proud of the 
fact that in this very Wing you have ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians, 
some with relatives in Kosovo. You have people of Serbian and Albanian 
descent flying together, proving that we do find strength in our 
diversity, and we come together for the common good. That should not 
only make us proud to be Americans, it should convince us that the same 
thing can and should happen in the Balkans, in the Middle East, in 
Northern Ireland, in South Asia, wherever today people still find 
themselves bedeviled by their hatred of one another because of their 
different races, because, in the case of Africa, their different tribes, 
because of their different ethnic groups, because of the different ways 
in which they worship God.
    I want you to think about that tonight and be especially proud. We 
want--we want--the people who live in the Balkans to be able to work 
together the way the people in this unit who come from the Balkans work 
together. We are all children of God, endowed with certain inalienable 
rights and entitled to mutual respect. And you do that, and I thank you 
for that.
    Thanks to you and others, today our NATO troops entered Kosovo, the 
British, the French, and the Americans beginning. Eventually, there will 
be troops from nearly 30 nations there. We are working now with the 
Russians to ensure that we can work together with a unified command 
structure, as we have done so well in Bosnia. I think this is important, 
because if we can work there with the Russians as we have in Bosnia, we 
will demonstrate clearly our commitment as Americans to protect all the 
civilians of

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Kosovo, the Serbs and the Albanians alike. That is what we have pledged 
to do; that is what we intend to do.
    But today in the camps in Albania and Macedonia, in the villages and 
in the hills of Kosovo, where so many innocent people have had to hide 
and forage for food, among the Kosovar Albanians who have taken refuge 
elsewhere, including here in the United States, people are getting ready 
to go home. They will go back to their homes and their lives with safety 
and self-government.
    And the United States will have stood for the proposition that we 
can't expect everyone to get along; we can't expect people never to 
fight; but we do expect that when we can stop it, innocent civilians 
will not be slaughtered, burned out of their homes, have their houses of 
worship blown up, have their personal records destroyed, have their 
children abused. We will not tolerate ethnic cleansing and killing. It 
should not be a part of the 21st century world, thanks to you.
    And so let me say just one last time, as you prepare to leave 
O'Hare, to retire or head for your new homes and duties, the whole world 
is grateful to you. You have ended this chapter in the history of your 
Wing and your units on a truly triumphant note. You have helped to end 
this century, which has seen so much bloodshed and hatred, not with a 
feeling of helpless indignation at yet another travesty but instead with 
a ringing reaffirmation of the dignity of all human beings. You did it. 
It's quite a way to close out your stay here.
    Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 3:30 p.m. in Hangar 30 at Chicago O'Hare 
International Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Brig. Gen. Harold 
E. Keistler, USAF, Commander, 126th Air Refueling Wing; Brig. Gen. Frank 
D. Rezac, USAF, Commander, Illinois Air National Guard; and Maj. Gen. 
Richard G. Austin, Illinois National Guard, Adjutant General, State of 
Illinois.