Secretary of Defense William Cohen Delievers Remarks at Armed Forces Full Honors Ceremony for POW/MIA Recognition Day.
"General Shalikashvilli, former secretary of defense Mel Laird, Secretary West, Senator McCain, and ladies and gentlemen.
Let me take you back to a time in the Korean War in the fall of 1950, the American 8th Cavalry was fighting to push the North Korean forces up past the 38th parallel, when suddenly a wave of Chinese troops entered the battle. And after a series of bloody clashes, the 8th Cav was forced to withdraw behind the 38th, and leave behind several fallen comarades. And among them was a young sergarent, who shall remain anonymous at the request of his family. But last October, a month shy of the 46th year of his missing in action, this soldier came home. His remains were discovered by the Americans and the North Koreans working together. And today he rests in peace near his home and family in Louisana.
Some might ask, why does this really matter? Well, it matters to the servicemen and women who know that we'll never abandon them or their comrades in life or in death, or imprisoned or missing in action. It matters to the imprisoned whose courage against despair rests upon the confidence that their nation is determined to find and free them. It matters to the families who want relief and closure to their pain and wonder and worry. And it matters to the Department of Defense because we are a family, and like family we cherish and care for our own.
And so though the years may pass and hopes flare and flicker, our resolve to rescue and account for all Americans, felled or held, remains a steady burning flame.
We live in a time of remembrance and expectation, and we remember the trials and the triumphs of half a century ago, those hallowed days of D-Day and VE-Day and VJ-Day, the historic deeds, the Marshall Plan, the National Security Act, and the enduring establishments to which we've been paying tribute in these recent days and weeks - - The United Nations, the United States, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense.
But as we recall these trials and triumphs of the past, we also have to focus upon the threats and the possibilities of the future, the new dangers of instability and regional conflict and weapons of mass destruction. Dangers against which we have to maintain strong forces that are forward deployed and poised at the ready.
But there are also some new opportunities as these old walls fall. Democracy grows and technology continues to shrink the globe, reducing vast oceans to mere ponds. These are opportunities for the United States to shape a world where there is more freedom in more nations, more prosperity for more people, and therefore fewer threats to American interests.
We can also seize some of these opportunities to better account for those who remain prisoners of war and mising in action. We're harnessing technology to give us the capability to track our troops in conflict and to rescue them quickly and safely whenever necessary, and to give us the power to use DNA testing to identify remains and to reduce the number of missing in action.
And in a changing world, the United States is engaging old enemies and building new friendships, which is opening doors and yielding answers. From North Korea where tough negotiations by the American team led to more joint recovery operations and discoveries in archival research, to China which has allowed a team to search a World War II site where an American transport plane crashed, to Russia where an American team now lives and conducts reseaches with the full cooperation of the Yeltsin government.
But of course our biggest hope still lie in Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam, a place where too many Americans never came home, but a place that is now opening its doors to American search teams. And Vietnam has made it clear that it's ready to cooperate with us on this issue, and we've made it clear that without cooperation, Vietnam can never achieve its goal of normal and full relations with the United States.
This is the message our country sent to Vietnam when President Clinton sent a former pilot and POW, Pete Peterson, back to Vietnam as our first ambassador. And it's a message that Ambassador Peterson, every day, sends to the government when he talks to them. It's a message that he repeats every single day.
Why are our prisoners of war, missing in action so important to us? And why do we refuse to simply move on and forget about the past? Because as President John Kennedy once said, a nation reveals itself not only by the individual's that it produces, but by those it honors and those it remembers.
So National POW/MIA Recognition Day is a day to honor and remember true American heroes and their families, and to renew the flame that lights the way to resolution and closure and healing."