Clinton Honors Fallen U.S. Warriors

ARLINGTON, Va. — President Clinton honored fallen warriors “missing from our lives but eternally present in our memories” and welcomed home the remains of two Korean War soldiers Monday.

“They are coming home this Memorial Day,” Clinton said in a traditional service at Arlington National Cemetery that coincided with the early morning repatriation by North Korean officials of two unidentified U.S. soldiers’ remains.

Clinton also laid a floral wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, where the remains of a Vietnam veteran were exhumed May 12 for possible identification.

“It was the right course of action because science has given us a chance to restore his name and bring comfort to his family--and we had to seize it,” Clinton said. The remains will be tested to see if they match the DNA of Lt. Michael J. Blassie or Capt. Rodney Strobridge, whose planes went down near where the unknown soldier’s remains were found.

Standing before the white marble slab that honors America’s fallen soldiers, Clinton looked somberly ahead as the U.S. Army Band performed.

Clinton commended the United States military for being a “model for the world” at the service in the cemetery’s amphitheater, which stands in a sea of small white tombstones.

“Simple facts on simple stones, each standing for a person who believed the idea of America was worth fighting for,” Clinton said.

“And all the stones standing together are the enduring monument to our greatness and promise, including the stones which have no names.”

As “spring turns to summer, Americans around the nation take this day to enjoy friends and families. But we come again to Arlington to remember how much was given so we could enjoy this day and every day in freedom.”

America’s soldiers help promote peace internationally as well as domestically, Clinton said, pausing also to give thanks for the vote for peace in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, “to which so many of us trace our roots.

“We must strengthen our own freedom by maintaining America’s role in leading the world,” Clinton said. “That is the central lesson of the 20th century: We abdicate responsibility at our peril.”

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West Jr. and National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger were among the dignitaries in attendance.

The Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated to the nation’s unidentified war dead, with separate crypts for unknowns from World War II, Korea and Vietnam aligned before a sarcophagus containing remains of a World War I unknown.

In another observance, the remains of British sailors lost when the H.M.S. DeBraak sank during a storm off the Delaware coast 200 years ago were laid to rest in a ceremony Monday in Lewes, Del.

Hundreds watched as the Rev. Bernard Clarke of the British Royal Navy performed the ceremony.

The remains were found when the DeBraak was recovered 12 years ago.

* A DAY OF HONOR: Southland pays tribute to veterans in observances. B1