THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 7, 1994 TAG: 9406070347
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN M. BRODER LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: 940607 LENGTH: COLLEVILLE-SUR-MERE, FRANCE
In phrases that echoed among the careful rows of 9,386 white marble markers of the Normandy American Cemetery, Clinton on Monday summoned the spirits of heroes past to inspire today's generations to carry on the mission of the men who gave their lives here.
{REST} ``They were the fathers we never knew, the uncles we never met, the friends who never returned, the heroes we can never repay,'' said Clinton, gazing out on the rows of still, green graves. ``They gave us our world. And those simple sounds of freedom we hear today are their voices speaking to us across the years.''
As the president rose to speak, the skies that had been damp and leaden all day suddenly cleared. By the end of his brief address, the impressive tableau above the beach was bathed in slanting sunlight and the warships at anchor offshore were sharply outlined against the blue of the sea.
Gesturing to the hundreds of D-Day veterans in the audience in front of him, Clinton said, ``Today, many of them are here among us. Oh, 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 men saved the world.''
Monday's speech marking the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings was, by far, Clinton's most effective ceremonial moment as president. It appeared, at least for the moment, to assuage some of the misgivings many in America and overseas have felt about his stature as a world leader.
This eight-day journey of remembrance to battle sites in Europe was designed in some measure to reassure the active military and those who served before them that Clinton understands their concerns and takes seriously the awesome power of his office.
But, more than that, the voyage was a tribute to the millions who served in the great crusade half a century ago to free a world from tyranny. While the heads of state of 11 wartime allies were the appointed spokesmen of their nations, the true stars of the show were the veterans, who came by the thousands to Normandy this season to remember and to grieve and to cry.
Clinton's 11-minute speech at the Normandy cemetery in the village of Colleville-sur-Mere capped a day of ceremonies that began before dawn on the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier George Washington, anchored off the haunted beaches known 50 years ago as Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
Clinton's next event was at Pointe du Hoc, the bloodied promontory where former President Reagan put in one of the greatest performances of his presidency.
The president strode the slippery, cratered ground atop the cliffs with Ken Bargmann, a Ranger who survived the deadly climb up the hill on D-Day only to be taken prisoner the next day. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in eastern Germany.
Clinton and Bargmann walked with Bargmann's son, Michael, a disabled Vietnam veteran, and his grandson, Kyle. ``You completed your mission here,'' Clinton told the veterans. ``But the mission of freedom goes on; the battle continues. The longest day is not yet over.''
After the events on the beach, Clinton made his way to the Normandy Cemetery for the signature event of the day, his address to American D-Day veterans and homage to those who did not come home.
Clinton quoted from a letter that a young GI, Cpl. Frank Elliot, wrote to his wife just before setting sail for Normandy.
``I miss hamburgers a la Coney Island; American beer a la Duquesne; American shows a la Penn Theater; and American girls a la you,'' Elliot wrote his wife Pauline and his year-old daughter.
Clinton said that millions of American GIs returned from Europe and the Pacific to rebuild America and enjoy the quiet pleasures of peace. ``But on this field,'' Clinton said, ``there are 9,386 who did not - 33 pairs of brothers; a father and his son; 11 men from tiny Bedford, Va.; and Cpl. Frank Elliot, killed near these bluffs by a German shell on D-Day.''
{KEYWORDS} D-DAY WORLD WAR II NORMANDY by CNB