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Release Date: 09/01/04 00:00:00
Nashville, Tennessee
American Legion National Conference
September 1, 2004
(Remarks as Prepared)
Thank you, Commander, for those kind words. To you, Commander, to Bob Spanogle, to John Sommer, to my fellow Legionnaires, thank you all for your warm welcome. I'm honored to join you at this, your 86th gathering of the American Legion National Convention.
I'd like to say a quick hello to my fellow Pennsylvanians in the audience. I'm not partial, but I am proud - particularly proud of two good friends who join me today on this stage: the Legion's former National Commander and Vice Commander respectively, Ron Conley and Dr. Almo Sebastianelli. During my days in Congress and as governor, I worked closely with both gentlemen on issues ranging from employment opportunities to housing assistance to medical care for our nation’s veterans. Both have represented the Legion honorably, and served their fellow veterans ably, and with great compassion. Ron and Almo, thank you for your service. It's great to see you both.
To all of my fellow veterans here this morning, let me also say, if any of you are ever in Millcreek Township, P.A, drop by American Legion Post #773. The drinks are on us. Millcreek is much like any American Legion post. The conversations are lively and the connections run deep.
The same is true of this convention. The conversations are lively, emotional, animated – and without a doubt, the connections run deep. We make sure of it. We join together to remember, so that others do not forget. We join together so that those who fought for freedom benefit from freedom - economically, medically, socially. We join together because we know; we are needed, again, now more than ever. Because we know: we are all called to serve as long as we call ourselves free. That is the credo of the American soldier, the veteran, the Legionnaire.
It was the way of citizens, who joined together more than 228 years ago to fight for freedom – “to fight for the chance to call a land a country, to call a people a citizenry, to call a way of life ‘America.’”
And when that battle for freedom was won, George Washington declared that liberty was “finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
General Washington was the soldier's soldier, and he understood: freedom's greatest companion is fellowship – unity, everyone pledged to freedom's cause, everyone its protector, everyone its beneficiary.
You can read about it in our Constitution - America's Constitution, but also the Constitution of the American Legion. The very essence of Washington's words are found in the Legion's preamble - specifically, in our shared commitment to, quote, "inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation, "in our shared commitment to, quote, “safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy,” in our shared commitment to, quote, “consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.”
In this preamble, in this pledge, the connections we have to one another are well defined - soldier to citizen, citizen to duty, duty to country. Service above all else. A uniquely American heritage of selfless service, of epic bravery and sacrifice, alight many a soldier's path throughout history.
Upon the north bridge of Concord, through the scorched earth of the Western Front, amid the steep ravines of Guadalcanal; along the landing at Inchon, on the incline of Pork Chop Hill, amid the heat of the Mekong River Delta, on the seas of the Persian Gulf and the dirt roads of Kosovo, atop the rocky terrain of Afghanistan and the sniper-laced streets of Baghdad, many a soldier has fought with courage to serve the cause of freedom.
Many people in this audience, many of our fellow veterans here today, have sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues, loved ones all, who are serving at this very hour in the War on Terror. They are fighting in places of great hardship, yet they are serving with great determination and great heart. I ask those of you here this morning who know someone in service - or perhaps are yourselves on active duty - to take this moment to stand and be recognized.
Thank you. In saluting you, we salute every one of our service men and women. May you and your loved ones know: they serve a grateful nation. We support our troops; we honor them, and we pray for their comfort and safekeeping. America's brave soldiers are the finest in the world. God bless them all.
Unlike previous wars, the War on Terror is not fought on foreign soil alone. I stand before you today during a period of heightened alert. It's been nearly a month since we received specific credible information that al-Qaeda has its periscope on the iconic buildings of our financial services sector. We also know that they aim to disrupt our democratic processes. I can assure that our efforts to disrupt their destructive designs have been sweeping.
We continue to work closely with professionals in affected buildings and with law enforcement and intelligence officials, here and across the globe.
Terrorists in the 21st century represent a daunting enemy. They represent no country, no cause, no flag, no people - yet they have access to a steady supply of technologies, and funds, and willing recruits. They are undeniably methodical and maniacal in both their weaponry and will. They seek to use chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and before them lays a map of the world. They seek to hide behind our freedoms - but our freedoms have no shelter for those who hate, murder, and destroy.
It's been three years since 9-11, three years since a nation went from unprecedented grief to unprecedented guard. By now, terrorists should know: America will never utter a valedictory to freedom. There will be no farewell to service and devotion to country. Not on our watch. Not ever.
Americans do not live in fear. We live in freedom. And we will never let that freedom go.
We are resilient and rapidly adaptable; innovative, focused and resolved. We always have been. And that is why, when tragedy struck the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, the brave citizen soldiers of Flight 93, when families and friends were lost, and the enormity of the task before us was clear, we said simply and rightly, “Let us begin.”
It was, indeed, clear that we needed to attack terrorists on all fronts - on new fronts - in an untold new number of ways. We needed a nimble government structure, a national and international dialogue - and we needed all of it fast.
And so we went to work. We called on the best and brightest minds. We sought out the most advanced technologies. We began to build and bolster security throughout the country. We worked to reduce the vulnerabilities that were exploited on September 11th and think analytically about those that could be exploited in the future. We examined our critical infrastructure, our transportation systems, our borders, our ports, and, of course, the skies overhead. Nothing was or is beyond our scope of analysis and review.
The President’s actions were swift. He called and asked me to join the White House as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. There, I joined him, as I continue to do each morning, with his CIA director, his Attorney General, his FBI director to address the latest intelligence reports, the latest threats. The President also established a twice-daily video teleconference meeting with the broader intelligence community. He created the Terrorist Threat Integration Center and began consolidating terrorists watch lists, under the guidance of a new Terrorist Screening Center.
He swung open diplomatic channels to establish immediate security protocols and mutual standards for protections across land, air and sea. He struck terrorists in their safe havens, at their training camps in Afghanistan, and ran the Taliban out of a country yearning to breathe free.
Certainly, securing our homeland and protecting our citizens is a monumental task. We must guard thousands of miles of borders, shoreline, highways, railways and waterways. Such a task requires a monumental effort, which is why President Bush made the most important decision of his presidency when he created the Department of Homeland Security.
This department, the combined efforts of nearly 180,000 people and 22 component agencies, provides a central point of command for the protection of our country and a common vision for preserving our individual liberties.
The result? We are more secure today than we have ever been. We took the challenge head-on, and you can see and feel the difference in ways large and small.
Before September 11th, ticket agents asked who packed a traveler's bags, but little else was done in the airport or the aircraft to provide security. Today we have deployed newly-trained screeners and thousands of federal air marshals; we've hardened cockpit doors on the aircraft, introduced state-of-the-art technologies, which, from the curb to the cockpit, have made airline travel safer.
Before September 11th, visitors at our borders faced an inspection process with distinct and disparate purposes. Today we have unified that process to present "One Face at the Border" and have deployed advanced technologies, the United States VISIT system, the student exchange program, special lanes for pre-cleared travelers and cargo that all welcome the free flow of trade and travelers, but keep terrorists out.
US-VISIT uses the smart technology of biometrics to speed the entry of foreign travelers. Since its deployment in early January of this year, 8 million passengers have been processed and more than 1,000 individuals have either been apprehended or prevented from entering the country, based on information we were able to secure by having access to their photograph and fingerprints.
The Student and Exchange Visitor Information program is a program that was developed in close collaboration with the colleges and universities in our country. As a result, last year, during the enrollment season of August and September, we allowed passage and welcomed to college and university campuses nearly 300,000 young men and women, but we turned nearly 200 away at ports of entry. We don't know what their intentions are, but they were not registered to go to school. They were therefore not admitted.
Before September 11th, we never looked in a container of cargo until it reached our shores, though nearly 20,000 containers arrive in our ports every single day. Now, as I speak, there are U.S. inspectors in Rotterdam and Singapore and Hong Kong and 22 other international ports of trade, working alongside our allies to target and screen cargo.
Before September 11th, our national stockpile of medications to protect Americans against a bioterrorist attack was drastically undersupplied. Today we have stockpiled a billion doses of antibiotics and vaccines, including enough smallpox vaccine for every man, woman and child in America.
There is so much more to tell. Before September 11th, employers and employees rarely took the time to prepare and exercise emergency plans. And yet, recently, the American National Standards Institute and the National Fire Prevention Association have created voluntary readiness standards that Homeland Security encourages business to adopt. It will be very much a part of our outreach campaign to the business community later this year.
Before September 11th, our first preventers and first-responders lacked the financial resources and equipment they needed to respond together to a crisis.
And yet today we have allocated or awarded more than $8.5 billion dollars for our state and local partners across the country. We have and will continue to develop new standards for interoperable communications equipment and protective gear. All across the nation, this money is helping to fund much-needed equipment and training, critical assets that can help folks on the frontlines perform their duties quickly and safely at any emergency scene.
Before September 11th, agencies in the federal government saw very little need to share information and intelligence between themselves, let alone with state and local officials. And yet today, secure communications technologies and expanded clearances, along with the shared language of the Homeland Security Advisory System, create a powerful and constant two-way flow of threat information between the federal government and our partners at the state and local level and around the world.
This is just a brief glimpse into the many protective measures already in place. Now, there may be some who would be tempted to minimize these security enhancements. They would be wrong.
In every way possible, we've made a real difference in securing our people and our homeland, and there are certainly more changes ahead. The successful integration of people and technology for a greater purpose has had a genuine result.
Thanks to new layered protections across land, air, and sea, our nation is better protected and more secure today than ever before. But, of course, there is still plenty of work left to be done.
As any soldier knows, the tactics of war require setting priorities, deploying resources strategically and effectively, quickly attacking the biggest threats, infiltrating the more nebulous ones.
A war as vast and visceral as this one requires adaptability, creativity – unity on all fronts.
That's why, homeland security has been derived from the ground up. It is a national strategy – not a federal one. It is a philosophy underpinned by shared responsibility, shared leadership, shared accountability – a shared imperative. Because the protection of this nation cannot be micro-managed from Washington, DC.
Instead, it must be a priority in every city, every neighborhood, and every home across America. And so, homeland security in the 21st century is really about the integration of a nation, and nations – led by national leaders, but also governors, mayors, airline personnel, border patrol agents, the intelligence community, law enforcement, firefighters, diplomatic officers, business leaders, international partners – citizens and freedom-loving people everywhere.
This integration is important. And so I am grateful to the American Legion family. For an organization as interconnected as yours is highly important to this security philosophy.
Today marks the first day of National Preparedness Month.
The American Legion is one of 80 members of a broad coalition that is committed to spreading the message of individual preparedness throughout September.
Your contribution – the reach you provide through your 2.7 million members – adds extraordinary value to an important effort. As part of this undertaking, members of the Legion’s nearly 15,000 posts have been encouraged to set up shelters, emergency command centers, CERT team training, deployment sites and more.
I am grateful for your time and expertise to these preparedness efforts. We know such time and commitment has already benefited our citizens in numerous ways, particularly last month, for those affected by Hurricane Charley. The State of Florida should be especially proud of the role it played in Charley’s aftermath.
Legionnaires and Auxiliary members from adjacent states and around the country joined together to travel to the disaster site, offering comfort, needed supplies and funds to those facing a difficult recovery.
I thank you for your service, and yet, I am not surprised by it. I've been told that, to directly support Homeland Security, the Legion's National Security Commission formed the Homeland Security and Civil Preparedness Committee, with members located in every major community across the nation.
And I understand that later tomorrow, you will be voting on resolutions authorizing the Legion's official affiliation with Citizen Corps. I know you will add great strength to the Citizen Corps Councils' efforts where they exist - and if I had to guess - perhaps lead the effort to create new councils where they are still needed.
Every day, you continue to find ways to serve the country – through good works and good citizenship. It's obvious – your connections to your country run deep.
Like many of you, when it comes to my time in combat, I don't dwell on it, but I do draw from it. When I was in Vietnam, my dad used to write me a letter every single day. Amazing when you think about it. Every day, he’d clack out a letter to me on his manual typewriter. Sometimes the letter would be a few sentences. Once, it was a full play-by-play of the Superbowl – everything from the first snap of the ball to the 46-yard winning touchdown. I passed around that letter to my buddies. Together, we hung on my dad's every word – and felt close to home with the man from Erie. That day, we were all his sons, we were all his heroes - we were all his fellow sports fans. That kindness, that small but important gesture, taught me a lifelong lesson – connections run deep.
I've seen the depths of such personal connections in so many ways – through the love of family and friends, through heroic feats of bravery and compassion, and just last year, in fact, when I attended a naturalization ceremony in Los Angeles. Thousands of people from more than 140 countries were sworn in as new citizens. Some were already wearing our country's uniform. They had awaited citizenship, but had not waited to fight for freedom’s cause.
The joy of liberty - the character of a welcoming nation - the resolve of a willful people. When will terrorists realize they have no foothold in a country where freedom is ever and always on the march?
In his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan told the story of Martin Treptow, a small-town barber who, in 1917, joined the celebrated Rainbow Division. He lost his life on the wasteland of the Western Front, but he did not lose his connection to posterity. President Reagan made sure of it. For on Treptow's body was found a diary. And in it, Treptow had written the words, "My Pledge." And under that heading, he had declared to his country: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone."
Blessed are generations of soldiers who have served with such spirit and devotion. For today we are citizens of a strong, free and great nation.
Here, liberty is not an ideal; it is an indivisible cause. A way of life so prized that, for generations, we have pledged all we are and all we hope to be to its preservation. And why is that so?
Because out of the difficulties of battle, out of centuries of conflict and even peace, we have learned: Freedom is not a given. It is a bugle call, hundreds of years old. Let us continue to heed it. Let us fight as if the whole struggle depended on each one of us alone. But let us know that we are all in this together.
Because here, in this hall of thousands, in this nation of millions, our connections to one another run deep. That is the credo of the America soldier, the veteran, the Legionnaire. That it the way of citizens - the kind of citizens General Washington knew Americans would always be.
Again, thank you for your kind invitation to join this morning. To be among my fellow veterans is to be among friends. I thank you for your friendship, your fellowship, for your service and sacrifice, and for the unyielding honor you continue to bestow your country.
May God bless our soldiers. May God bless you all. And may God continue to bless the freest, greatest, most treasured place to call home - our home - the United States of America.
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This page was last reviewed/modified on 09/01/04 00:00:00.
