[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 23 (Monday, June 11, 2001)]
[Pages 854-856]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Dedication of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, 
Virginia

June 6, 2001

    Thank you all very much. At ease, and be seated. Thank you for that 
warm welcome.
    Governor Gilmore, thank you so very much for your friendship and 
your leadership here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Lieutenant 
Governor Hager and Attorney General Earley, thank you, as well, for your 
hospitality.
    I'm honored to be traveling today with Secretary Principi, Veterans 
Affairs Department. I'm honored to be traveling today with two fantastic 
United States Senators from the Commonwealth of Virginia: Senator Warner 
and Senator Allen. Congressman Goode and Goodlatte are here, as well. 
Thank you for your presence. The Ambassador from France--it's a pleasure 
to see him, and thank you for your kind words. Delegate Putney, Chaplain 
Sessions, Bob Slaughter, Richard Burrow, distinguished guests, and my 
fellow Americans. I'm honored to be here today to dedicate this 
memorial. And this is a proud day for the people of Virginia and for the 
people of the United States. I'm honored to share it with you, on behalf 
of millions of Americans.
    We have many World War II and D-day veterans with us today, and 
we're honored by your presence. We appreciate your example, and thank 
you for coming. And let it be recorded, we're joined by one of the most 
distinguished of them all, a man who arrived at Normandy by glider with 
the 82d Airborne Division, a man who serves America to this very hour. 
Please welcome Maj. Gen. Strom Thurmond. [Applause]

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    You have raised a fitting memorial to D-day, and you have put it in 
just the right place, not on a battlefield of war but in a small 
Virginia town, a place like so many others that were home to the men and 
women who help liberate a continent.
    Our presence here, 57 years removed from that event, gives testimony 
to how much was gained and how much was lost--what was gained that first 
day was a beach and then a village and then a country. And, in time, all 
of western Europe would be freed from fascism and its armies.
    The achievement of Operation Overlord is nearly impossible to 
overstate, in its consequences for our own lives and the life of the 
world. Free societies in Europe can be traced to the first footprints on 
the first beach on June 6, 1944.
    What was lost on D-day we can never measure and never forget. When 
the day was over, America and her Allies had lost at least 2,500 of the 
bravest men ever to wear a uniform. Many thousands more would die on the 
days that followed. They scaled towering cliffs, looking straight up 
into enemy fire. They dropped into grassy fields sown with landmines. 
They overran machine gun nests hidden everywhere, punched through walls 
of barbed wire, overtook bunkers of concrete and steel. The great 
journalist Ernie Pyle said, ``It seemed to me a pure miracle that we 
ever took the beach at all. The advantages were all theirs, the 
disadvantages all ours. And yet,'' said Pyle, ``we got on.''
    A father and his son both fell during Operation Overlord. So did 33 
pairs of brothers, including a boy having the same name as his hometown, 
Bedford T. Hoback, and his brother Raymond. Their sister Lucille, is 
with us today. She has recalled that Raymond was offered an early 
discharge for health reasons, but he turned it down. ``He didn't want to 
leave his brother,'' she remembers. ``He had come over with him, and he 
was going to stay with him.'' Both were killed on D-day. The only trace 
of Raymond Hoback was his Bible, found in the sand. Their mother asked 
that Bedford be laid to rest in France with Raymond, so that her sons 
might always be together.
    Perhaps some of you knew Gordon White, Sr. He died here just a few 
years ago, at the age of 95, the last living parent of a soldier who 
died on D-day. His boy Henry, loved his days on the family farm and was 
especially fond of a workhorse named Major. Family members recall how 
Gordon just couldn't let go of Henry's old horse, and he never did. For 
25 years after the war, Major was cherished by Gordon White as a last 
link to his son and a link to another life.
    Upon this beautiful town fell the heaviest share of American losses 
on D-day, 19 men from a community of 3,200, 4 more afterwards. When 
people come here, it is important to see the town as the monument 
itself. Here were the images these soldiers carried with them and the 
thought of when they were afraid. This is the place they left behind, 
and here was the life they dreamed of returning to. They did not yearn 
to be heroes. They yearned for those long summer nights again and 
harvest time and paydays. They wanted to see Mom and Dad again and hold 
their sweethearts or wives or, for one young man who lived here, to see 
that baby girl born while he was away.
    Bedford has a special place in our history. But there were 
neighborhoods like these all over America, from the smallest villages to 
the greatest cities. And somehow they all produced a generation of young 
men and women who, on a date certain, gathered and advanced as one and 
changed the course of history. Whatever it is about America that has 
given us such citizens, it is the greatest quality we have, and may it 
never leave us.
    In some ways, modern society is very different from the Nation that 
the men and women of D-day knew, and it is sometimes fashionable to take 
a cynical view of the world. But when the calendar reads the 6th of 
June, such opinions are better left unspoken. No one who has heard and 
read about the events of D-day could possibly remain a cynic. Army 
Private Andy Rooney was there to survey the aftermath. A lifetime later 
he would write, ``If you think the world is selfish and rotten, go to 
the cemetery at Colleville overlooking Omaha Beach. See what one group 
of men did for another on D-day, June 6, 1944.''
    Fifty-three hundred ships and landing craft, 1,500 tanks, 12,000 
airplanes, but in the end, it came down to this: Scared and

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brave kids by the thousands who kept fighting and kept climbing and 
carried out General Eisenhower's order of the day--nothing short of 
complete victory.
    For us, nearly six decades later, the order of the day is gratitude. 
Today we give thanks for all that was gained on the beaches of Normandy. 
We remember what was lost with respect, admiration, and love.
    The great enemies of that era have vanished. And it is one of 
history's remarkable turns that so many young men from the new world 
would cross the sea to help liberate the old. Beyond the peaceful 
beaches and quiet cemeteries lies a Europe whole and free, a continent 
of democratic governments and people more free and hopeful than ever 
before. This freedom and these hopes are what the heroes of D-day fought 
and died for. And these, in the end, are the greatest monuments of all 
to the sacrifices made that day.
    When I go to Europe next week, I will reaffirm the ties that bind 
our nations in a common destiny. These are the ties of friendship and 
hard experiences. They have seen our nations through a World War and a 
cold war. Our shared values and experiences must guide us now in our 
continued partnership and in leading the peaceful democratic revolution 
that continues to this day.
    We have learned that when there is conflict in Europe, America is 
affected and cannot stand by. We have learned, as well, in the years 
since the war that America gains when Europe is united and peaceful.
    Fifty-seven years ago today, America and the nations of Europe 
formed a bond that has never been broken. And all of us incurred a debt 
that can never be repaid. Today, as America dedicates our D-Day 
Memorial, we pray that our country will always be worthy of the courage 
that delivered us from evil and saved the free world.
    God bless America. And God bless the World War II generation.

Note: The President spoke at 1:10 p.m. at the memorial. In his remarks, 
he referred to Gov. James S. Gilmore III, Lt. Gov. John Hager, and 
former Attorney General Mark L. Earley of Virginia; Francois Bujon de 
l'Estang, French Ambassador to the United States; Lacey E. Putney, 
delegate, Virginia House of Delegates; Col. David C. Sessions, USAF, 
chaplain, 20th Fighter Wing; John Robert Slaughter, chairman, board of 
directors, and Richard B. Burrow, president, National D-Day Memorial 
Foundation; and journalist Andy Rooney.