[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 22 (Monday, June 4, 2001)]
[Pages 820-822]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony in Arlington, Virginia

May 28, 2001

    Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for those kind remarks. Secretary 
Principi, General Shelton, and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 
General Jackson, members

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of the Cabinet, Members of the United States Congress, honored guests. 
We have a lot of generations represented here today. But I would like 
for what's now called the ``Greatest Generation'' to please stand with 
those who served in World War II, their widows, World War II orphans. 
Please rise. [Applause]
    My fellow Americans, a few moments ago, for the first time as 
President, I paid tribute at this tomb where American soldiers were laid 
to rest. Their names are known only to God, but there is much we do know 
about them and about all the others we remember today. We know that they 
all loved their lives as we love ours. We know they had a place in the 
world, families waiting for them, and friends they expected to see 
again. We know that they thought of a future, just as we do, with plans 
and hopes for a long and full life. And we know that they left those 
hopes behind when they went to war and parted with them forever when 
they died.
    Every Memorial Day we try to grasp the extent of this loss and the 
meaning of this sacrifice. And it always seems more than words can 
convey. All we can do is remember and always appreciate the price that 
was paid for our own lives and for our own freedom.
    Today, in thousands of towns across this great land, Americans are 
gathered to pay their own tributes. At 3 o'clock this afternoon 
Americans will pause for a moment of remembrance. They will meet at 
monuments or in public squares or, like us, in places where those we 
honor were laid to rest.
    More than any words we say, the truth is told in the things we see, 
in markers, in dates, in names around us. Some of the names here at 
Arlington are written large in our history: President John F. Kennedy 
and his brother Robert; General George C. Marshall; Second Lieutenant 
Audie Murphy of Kingston, Texas; General Chappy James; Lieutenant 
Colonel Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., of the Union Army; Captain Robert 
Todd Lincoln; Generals Bradley and Pershing; Admirals Leahy and 
Rickover; and three of the men who planted the flag at Iwo Jima. These 
men were known for their wartime service, and also for the lives they 
lived afterward.
    For many, however, the afterward never came. Within these 200 acres 
are the remains of men and women who died young, some very young. 
Walking along these paths, a visitor to this national cemetery might 
view these markers as one great national loss. And that is certainly the 
case.
    But we must remember, for many who come here, there is one marker 
that will always stand out among all the others. In their eyes, it lies 
alone.
    For one woman, Memorial Day brings thoughts of the father she never 
knew. She recalled as a young child, learning to pray the words, ``Our 
Father, who art in heaven,'' thinking she was talking to her own father.
    For others, there is the memory of the last kiss as the train pulled 
away, a last wink and parting wisecrack from a big brother, a brave 
smile from a son who seemed like a boy. And then there was the telegram 
that came.
    To those who have known that loss and felt that absence, Memorial 
Day gives formal expression to a very personal experience. Their losses 
can be marked but not measured. We can never measure the full value of 
what was gained in their sacrifice. We live it every day in the comforts 
of peace and the gifts of freedom. These have all been purchased for us.
    From the very beginning, our country has faced many tests of 
courage. Our answer to such tests can be found here on these hills and 
in America's cemeteries, from the islands of the Pacific to the north 
coast of France.
    And on Memorial Day, we must remember a special group of veterans, 
Americans still missing and unaccounted for from Vietnam, Korea, the 
cold war, and World War II. We honor them today. They deserve and will 
have our best efforts to achieve the fullest possible accounting and, 
alive or dead, to return them home to America.
    It is not in our nature to seek out wars and conflicts. But whenever 
they have come, when adversaries have left us no alternative, American 
men and women have stood ready to take the risks and to pay the ultimate 
price. People of the same caliber and the same character today fill the 
ranks of the Armed Forces of the United States. Any foe who might ever 
challenge our national resolve would be repeating the grave errors of 
defeated enemies. Because this Nation loves peace, we do not take it for 
granted. Because

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we love freedom, we are always prepared to bear even its greatest costs.
    Arriving here today, all of us passed the strong straight figures of 
men and women who serve our country today. To see their youth and 
discipline and clarity of purpose is humbling to a Commander in Chief. 
They are the new generation of America's defenders. They follow an 
unbroken line of good and brave and unfaltering people who have never 
let this country down.
    Today we honor those who fell from the line, who left us never 
knowing how much they would be missed. We pray for them with an 
affection that grows deeper with the years. And we remember them, all of 
them, with the love of a grateful Nation.
    God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 11:34 a.m. in the Amphitheater at Arlington 
National Cemetery. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. James T. Jackson, 
USA, Commanding General, Military District of Washington.