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Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Image by US Embassy New Zealand
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
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Remarks by the President at a Memorial Day Service
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, Virginia
11:25 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you so much. Please be seated.
Thank you, Secretary Gates, and thank you for your extraordinary service to our nation. I think that Bob Gates will go down as one of our finest Secretaries of Defense in our history, and it’s been an honor to serve with him. (Applause.)
I also want to say a word about Admiral Mullen. On a day when we are announcing his successor as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as he looks forward to a well-deserved retirement later this year, Admiral Mullen, on behalf of all Americans, we want to say thank you for your four decades of service to this great country. (Applause.) We want to thank Deborah Mullen as well for her extraordinary service. To Major General Karl Horst, the commanding general of our Military District of Washington; Mrs. Nancy Horst; Mr. Patrick Hallinan, the superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, as well as his lovely wife Doreen. And to Chaplain Steve Berry, thank you for your extraordinary service. (Applause.)
It is a great privilege to return here to our national sanctuary, this most hallowed ground, to commemorate Memorial Day with all of you. With Americans who’ve come to pay their respects. With members of our military and their families. With veterans whose service we will never forget and always honor. And with Gold Star families whose loved ones rest all around us in eternal peace.
To those of you who mourn the loss of a loved one today, my heart breaks goes out to you. I love my daughters more than anything in the world, and I cannot imagine losing them. I can’t imagine losing a sister or brother or parent at war. The grief so many of you carry in your hearts is a grief I cannot fully know.
This day is about you, and the fallen heroes that you loved. And it’s a day that has meaning for all Americans, including me. It’s one of my highest honors, it is my most solemn responsibility as President, to serve as Commander-in-Chief of one of the finest fighting forces the world has ever known. (Applause.) And it’s a responsibility that carries a special weight on this day; that carries a special weight each time I meet with our Gold Star families and I see the pride in their eyes, but also the tears of pain that will never fully go away; each time I sit down at my desk and sign a condolence letter to the family of the fallen.
Sometimes a family will write me back and tell me about their daughter or son that they’ve lost, or a friend will write me a letter about what their battle buddy meant to them. I received one such letter from an Army veteran named Paul Tarbox after I visited Arlington a couple of years ago. Paul saw a photograph of me walking through Section 60, where the heroes who fell in Iraq and Afghanistan lay, by a headstone marking the final resting place of Staff Sergeant Joe Phaneuf.
Joe, he told me, was a friend of his, one of the best men he’d ever known, the kind of guy who could have the entire barracks in laughter, who was always there to lend a hand, from being a volunteer coach to helping build a playground. It was a moving letter, and Paul closed it with a few words about the hallowed cemetery where we are gathered here today.
He wrote, “The venerable warriors that slumber there knew full well the risks that are associated with military service, and felt pride in defending our democracy. The true lesson of Arlington,” he continued, “is that each headstone is that of a patriot. Each headstone shares a story. Thank you for letting me share with you [the story] about my friend Joe.”
Staff Sergeant Joe Phaneuf was a patriot, like all the venerable warriors who lay here, and across this country, and around the globe. Each of them adds honor to what it means to be a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, and Coast Guardsman. Each is a link in an unbroken chain that stretches back to the earliest days of our Republic — and on this day, we memorialize them all.
We memorialize our first patriots — blacksmiths and farmers, slaves and freedmen — who never knew the independence they won with their lives. We memorialize the armies of men, and women disguised as men, black and white, who fell in apple orchards and cornfields in a war that saved our union. We memorialize those who gave their lives on the battlefields of our times — from Normandy to Manila, Inchon to Khe Sanh, Baghdad to Helmand, and in jungles, deserts, and city streets around the world.
What bonds this chain together across the generations, this chain of honor and sacrifice, is not only a common cause — our country’s cause — but also a spirit captured in a Book of Isaiah, a familiar verse, mailed to me by the Gold Star parents of 2nd Lieutenant Mike McGahan. “When I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!”
That’s what we memorialize today. That spirit that says, send me, no matter the mission. Send me, no matter the risk. Send me, no matter how great the sacrifice I am called to make. The patriots we memorialize today sacrificed not only all they had but all they would ever know. They gave of themselves until they had nothing more to give. It’s natural, when we lose someone we care about, to ask why it had to be them. Why my son, why my sister, why my friend, why not me?
These are questions that cannot be answered by us. But on this day we remember that it is on our behalf that they gave our lives — they gave their lives. We remember that it is their courage, their unselfishness, their devotion to duty that has sustained this country through all its trials and will sustain us through all the trials to come. We remember that the blessings we enjoy as Americans came at a dear cost; that our very presence here today, as free people in a free society, bears testimony to their enduring legacy.
Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay. But we can honor their sacrifice, and we must. We must honor it in our own lives by holding their memories close to our hearts, and heeding the example they set. And we must honor it as a nation by keeping our sacred trust with all who wear America’s uniform, and the families who love them; by never giving up the search for those who’ve gone missing under our country’s flag or are held as prisoners of war; by serving our patriots as well as they serve us — from the moment they enter the military, to the moment they leave it, to the moment they are laid to rest.
That is how we can honor the sacrifice of those we’ve lost. That is our obligation to America’s guardians — guardians like Travis Manion. The son of a Marine, Travis aspired to follow in his father’s footsteps and was accepted by the USS [sic] Naval Academy. His roommate at the Academy was Brendan Looney, a star athlete and born leader from a military family, just like Travis. The two quickly became best friends — like brothers, Brendan said.
After graduation, they deployed — Travis to Iraq, and Brendan to Korea. On April 29, 2007, while fighting to rescue his fellow Marines from danger, Travis was killed by a sniper. Brendan did what he had to do — he kept going. He poured himself into his SEAL training, and dedicated it to the friend that he missed. He married the woman he loved. And, his tour in Korea behind him, he deployed to Afghanistan. On September 21st of last year, Brendan gave his own life, along with eight others, in a helicopter crash.
Heartbroken, yet filled with pride, the Manions and the Looneys knew only one way to honor their sons’ friendship — they moved Travis from his cemetery in Pennsylvania and buried them side by side here at Arlington. “Warriors for freedom,” reads the epitaph written by Travis’s father, “brothers forever.”
The friendship between 1st Lieutenant Travis Manion and Lieutenant Brendan Looney reflects the meaning of Memorial Day. Brotherhood. Sacrifice. Love of country. And it is my fervent prayer that we may honor the memory of the fallen by living out those ideals every day of our lives, in the military and beyond. May God bless the souls of the venerable warriors we’ve lost, and the country for which they died. (Applause.)
END 11:37 A.M. EDT
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Two Soldiers take fourth at U.S. National Boxing Championships 090617
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PHOTO CAPTION: Pfc. Sidney Williams, a Reservist from Lexington, Ky., scores with a right hand during a 21-5 loss to Cleveland’s Terrell Gausha in the 165-pound quarterfinals of the 2009 U.S. National Boxing Championships on June 10 at Denver Coliseum. (Photo by Tim Hipps, FMWRC Public Affairs)
Two Soldiers take fourth at U.S. National Boxing Championships 090617 (Posted June 17, 2009)
By Tim Hipps
FMWRC Public Affairs
DENVER – First Lt. Michael Benedosso and Spc. Adrian Ghisoiu finished fourth in their respective weight classes in the 2009 U.S. National Boxing Championships June 8-13 at Denver Coliseum.
Benedosso, 24, a member of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, lost a 15-3 decision to Fabian Cervantes of Arleta, Calif., in the bronze-medal bout of the 106-pound division.
“Overall, I’d give myself a C+,” Benedosso said of his second appearance in the national championships since graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. “WCAP is really helping me improve my skills and abilities – my stamina, strength and conditioning. A coach that I’ve known for the last six years said there’s a night-and-day difference from when I first started boxing and now, so I’m very happy about my progress, but I still need a lot more improvement.”
Ghisoiu, 29, of Fort Hood, Texas, lost to Michael Ruiz Jr. of Fresno, Calif., when Army coach Basheer Abdullah stopped their 112-pound bronze-medal bout at 2:49 of the second round.
“My ultimate goal was to get to the U.S. Nationals and try to get the national title,” said Ghisoiu, who won four Pennsylvania Golden Gloves titles and sandwiched two Armed Forces crowns around a 14-month deployment to Iraq. “I don’t have that much time left to compete as an amateur and I actually want to turn pro. With being in the Army, it’s going to be tough to do, but I think I can work around it.”
The Saturday setbacks epitomized a rough week in the ring for the All-Army boxing team. WCAP coach Basheer Abdullah shouldered part of the blame for ceasing sparring seven days prior to the tournament, a strategy that ultimately backfired because his troops appeared flat and fatigued in the ring.
“I was trying something new, hoping that they would come into the competition fresher with no injuries, all healed up, etc.,” said Abdullah, head coach of the 2004 U.S. Olympic boxing team and a two-time Olympic technical advisor. “That was a bad decision on my part.
“A lot of guys looked tired, and they haven’t showed being fatigued since I don’t know when. They’ve been fighting all the way through every competition that we’ve been in at a very high level. I should have sparred them right up until the last two or three days before the competition started.”
The Army’s strongest medal contenders lost preliminary bouts on Monday and Tuesday, including WCAP team captain Sgt. John Franklin, WCAP Spc. Jeffery Spencer and WCAP Staff Sgt. Andrew Shepherd, a gold medalist at the 2007 CISM Military World Games.
“Franklin, Spencer and Shepherd were the three big guns that I thought were going to carry this team very far, and I was hoping we would have Sgt. Reyes Marquez, Pfc. Sidney Williams or Spc. Dustin Lara slip through the cracks,” Abdullah said.
Franklin lost 19-9 to Luis Rosa of East Haven, Conn., in Monday’s 119-pound preliminaries.
“That was the first time we’ve seen Franklin get pushed around like that,” Abdullah said. “He was hyped up for the bout and ready to go, and then they changed the bout order and moved his to last. I think that kind of psyched him out.
“I think Franklin was tired because he’s boxed in a lot of recent competitions: State Golden Gloves, Regional Golden Gloves, National Golden Gloves, All-Army, Armed Forces, and now the Nationals. He had a lot of bouts and he was always in the medal round of all those competitions.
“His loss was a big disappointment because the [team’s] motivation dropped. He’s the team leader and he inspires these guys. I had to pull them to the side and give them a motivational speech after the Franklin bout because he’s really the spirit of the team.”
Sgt. Reyes Marquez of Fort Myer, Va., lost 19-12 to Javontae Starks of St. Paul, Minn., in the 152-pound preliminaries on Monday night.
In Tuesday’s preliminaries, Shepherd lost 11-1 to Olympian Michael Hunter of Las Vegas in the heavyweight division.
In Wednesday’s quarterfinals, Spencer lost 12-10 to Sijuola Shabazz of Las Cruces, N.M., in the 178-pound class. Williams, a Reservist from Lexington, Ky., lost 21-5 to Terrell Gausha of Cleveland at 165 pounds. And WCAP Spc. Connor Johnson dropped a 21-7 decision to Eric Fowler of Conor, Texas, in the 132-pound division.
Spencer stayed on the move throughout his bout with Shabazz and fought hard to the finish, but came up two points short.
“That was part of our strategy because Shabazz is a very aggressive, fast-paced puncher,” Abdullah said. “We didn’t want to get into a shootout with him because I know he’s more of an endurance boxer than Spencer and he can hold that pace. We wanted to try to frustrate him with speed and movement, hoping that we could make him miss and he would become frustrated and desperate, and then we could use our speed to counter.
“Spencer kept battling, but it wasn’t enough.”
By Thursday’s semifinals only two Soldiers remained in contention. Benedosso lost 17-11 to Miguel Cartagena of Philadelphia, and Ghisoiu dropped a 25-8 decision to Adon Ortiz of Sterling, Ill.
“Benedosso is still a very young fighter,” Abdullah said. “The game plan was to fight a very fast pace and stay in front of Cartagena and initiate action every two or three seconds for three 3-minute rounds. … He just needs to anticipate better. If he would have executed a little better, he might have pulled that off. All in all, a good effort – I like where he’s at.”
Because of the struggling economy and high unemployment rate, Abdullah said his phone is ringing off the hook.
“The best job in the world right now, in our country, is the military,” he said. “Recruitment is coming up and I’m getting a lot of calls right now, and they’re from the type of athletes that I need in this program – athletes who have that boxing mentality – that have that street toughness.
“They’ve got to be mean and have no fear whatsoever. Those are the type of athletes that I’m looking for now – guys who not only the Army, but the military, can salvage. Time will tell if they are really committed to joining the United States Army."
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Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
