even at the age of 14, it was a net affirmation that truck -- manteca triumph in the midst of carnage. she wrote, i still believe that people are good at heart. these words, written before her short life ended in a diary she thought nobody would ever read, of those courageous young men and women of 1944, the moral truth that people are good at heart is now an inspiration for another generation of courageous men and women in our armed forces whose goodness today is to work for peace in every corner of the world. we salute the devotion of our armed forces. our gratitude to them and their families must always be equal to what they give. above all else, for you, the remaining few, the veterans who have outlived that battle and that war, who gathered here today with your families and your children, so our children and our children's children will gather here year after year to honor you long after you are gone. far beyond these moments of reflection and remembrance, the threads of your lives and your woven into the fabric of our world. if anybody had set on june 6, 1944, that we would crea