and on the other hand was general goodpaster. now, he was calling to discuss some of the issues that we were working through. the first thing he said to me was please call me in andy. [laughter] but old habits die hard, and i think it was the only time that i have never disobeyed a four-star general and i replied yes, sir. [laughter] bless him he tried again and once again i could not bring myself to call him and andy. at that point i think he gave up and i and he breathed a sigh of relief. i appreciated the gesture i should call the officer who during world war ii commanded an engineer battalion, led his unit across the german mine field under enemy fire, received the distinguished service cross and call him andy was quite simply to me incomprehensible. serving on this committee gave me a unique opportunity to honor one great american while learning from another and it was an experience that i will always treasure which brings me to the heart of my talk this evening. when i began to think about what subject i should talk about a

goodpaster award.ughter] >> it's fitting that i have had a chance to meet general goodpaster in two different settings. in 1994 i was honored to be a member of a group of historians that were invited to the white house to brief president clinton before his trip to europe to commemorate the 50th anniversary of d-day. at his side that evening at both the briefings that were given to the president and later at a dinner was general goodpaster. although the audience included key white house staffers, the secretary of state, the secretary of the xdtreasury, th one individual that night that the president consistently turned to whenever he had a question you was general goodpaster. it was perfectly fitting that a president of the united states would turn to general goodpaster for advice. by my reckoning, president clinton was the seventh president that he either snefshd so -- that he recognized or has been an advise or president.ç his list of accomplishments is truly awesome for a soldier/scholar to have ac