it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it. we're bound today by what? bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions and beliefs. we're bound by reality. the strength of america's allies is vital to the united states and the american security essential to the continued freedom of europe's democracies. we were with you then. we're with you now. your hopes are our hopes. and your destiny is our destiny here in this place where the west held together. let us make a vow to our dead. let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. that our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. i will not fail thee nor forsake

th their courage and hardened by their value and borne by their memory. let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much. and god bless you all. mr. dawson, you did your men proud today. general shalikashvili. mr. cronkite. chaplain. distinguished leaders of our members of congress. members of the armed services. our hosts from france.

and most of all, our veterans, their families and their friends. in these last days of ceremonies. we have heard wonderful words of tribute. now we come to this hallowed e that speaks more than anything else. and silence here on this quiet plateau, on this small piece of american soil. we honor those who gave their lives for us. 50 crowded years ago today, the beaches of normandy are calm. if you walk these shores on a summer's day, all you might hear is the laughter of children playing on the sand or the cry of seagulls overhead, or perhaps the ringing of a distant church bell.

the simple sounds of freedom barely breaking theaceful soundy sounds. but june six, 1944, was the least ordinary day of the 20th century. on that chilled on these beaches echoed with the sounds of staccato gunfire, the roar of aircraft, the thunder of bond in the waves came the soldiers out of their landing craft and into the water. a wave from their youth and toward a savage place. many of them would sadly never leave. they had come to free a continent. the americans, the british, the canadians, the poles, the french resistance, the norwegians and others, they had all come to stop one of the greatest forces of evil the world has ever known.

as news of the invasion broke. back home in america, people held their breath. in boston, commuters stood reading the news on the electric sign. at south station in new york, the statue of liberty. its torch blocked out since pearl harbor was lit at sunset for 15 minutes and a newcastle pennsylvania a young mother named pauline elliott, wrote to her husband, frank, a corporal in the army. d-day has arrived. the first thought of all of us was a prayer. below us are the beaches where corporal elliott's battalion and so many other americans landed. omaha and utah proudly scenes from america's heartland. part of the biggest gamble of the war, the greatest crusade. yes, the longest day. during those first hours on

bloody omaha, nothing seemed to go right. landing craft were ripped apart by mines and shells. tanks sent to protect them had sunk. drowning their crews. enemy fire raked the invaders as they stepped into chest high water and waded past the floating bodies of their comrades. and as the stunned survivors of the first wave huddled behind a seawall, it seemed the invasion might fail. hitler and his followers had bet on it. they were sure the allied soldiers were soft. weakened by liberty and leisure. by the mingling of races and religions. they were sure their totalitarian and use had more discipline and zeal. but then something happened. although many of the american troops found themselves without ■aofficers on unfamiliar ground, next to soldiers, they didn't know one by one. they got up.

they inch forward and together in groups of threes and fives and tens. the sons of democracy improvised and mounted their own attacks at that exact moment on these beaches. the forces of freedom turned the tide of the 20th century. put meant certain death, but they were also driven by the voice of free will and responsibility, nurtured in sunday schools, town halls and sandlot ball games. the voice that told them to stand up and move forward, saying you can do it. and if you don't, no one else will. and as captain joe dawson led his company up this bluff, and as others followed his lead, foothold for dom. today, many of them are here

among us. or they may walk with a little less spring in their step. and their ranks are growing thinner. but let us never forget, when they were young, these world. and so let us now ask them, all the veterans of the normandy campaign, to stand as i can and beecthe freedom they fought fors

no abstract concept. it was the stuff of their daily lives. listen to what frank elliott had written to his wife from the embarkation point in england. i miss hamburgers all at coney island, american beer, all of duquesne ameri shows. all of penn theater. and american girls all you. pauline elliott wrote back on june 6th as she and their one year old daughter listened on the radio. little deronda is the only one not affected by d-day news. i hope and pray she will never remember any of this, but only the happiness of the hours that will follow her daddy's homecoming step on the porch. well, millions of our guys did return home from that war to build up ourations and enjoy life's sweet pleasures.

but on this there are 93■86 who did not. 33 pairs of brothers, a father and his son. 11 young men from tiny bedford, virginia, and corporal frank elliott killed near these bluffs by a german shell on d-day. there was a father's we never knew. the uncles. we never met, the friends who never we can never repay. they gave us our world. and those simple sounds of freedom we here today are their voices speaking to us across the years at this place, let us honor all the americans who lost their lives in world war two.

let us remember as well that over 40 million human beings from every side perished. soldiers on the field of battle. -- in the ghettos and death camps. civilians ravaged by shellfire and famine. may god give rest to all their souls. 50 years later, for the different world we live in. germany, japan and italy, liberated by ourong our closests and the staunchest defenders of freedom. russia, decimated during the war and frozen afterward and coming ism and cold war has been reborn in democracy. and as freedom reigns from prague to kiev. the liberation of this continent is nearly complete. now the question falls to our generation. how will we build upon the sacrifice of the days heroes like the.

soldiers of omaha beach? we cannot stand still. we cannot stay safe by doing so. avoiding today's problems. would be our own generation of appeasement for justice. freedom has a price. it also has a purpose. and its name is progress. today, our mission is to expand freedom toto tap the full potential of each of our own citizens, to strengthen our families, our faith and our communities. to fight indifference and intolerance, to keep our nation strong, and to light the lives of those still dwelling in the darkness of endeavor cratic rule. our parents did that and more. less. they struggled in war, so that we might strive in peace. inevitable, but neither was victory. upon these beaches now is then the inner voice tells us to

stand up and move forward. now, as then, free people must choose. 50 years ago, normandy came not from the sea, but from the sky. they were called pathfinders. the first paratroopers to make the jump. deep in the darkness, they descended upon these fields to light beacons for the airborne assault that would soon follow. now, near the dawn of a new century, the job of lighting those beacons falls to our hands. to you who brought us here? i promise we will be the new path finders, for we are the children of your sacrice. thank you. and god bless you