This is a time of remembrance.

Memorial Day is that very special day when we honor devotion ... the lives ... the memories ... men and women ... Americans who answered the citizen soldier call of their country, and then gave the ultimate sacrifice. We honor these men and women whose lives and sacrifices live on, but only in legacy, and only in memory.

This is the time to look back with respect and gratitude. This is the time to look forward and value what we have been given, because of the sacrifice of others.

This is a time of memories.

When Rene asked me to speak at this beautiful National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the Punchbowl, the thought was almost overwhelming. My personal memories of this beautiful place span forty years. I came here on my honeymoon and my wife and I stood on that crest looking down on the beauty of Diamond Head, and then we looked 'ewa'to historic Pearl Harbor. And then we walked the interior of this new national cemetery. The early Hawaiians called where we stand "Puowaina"... which means a "Consecrated Hill" or "Hill of Sacrifice . How appropriate to this place and to Memorial Day, are these words in all of their historic Hawaiian meaning.

But I have other memories as well, for I have been returning to this hallowed ground frequently since that spring of 1958. These are family memories. I was born in the Depression and grew up in W.W.II watching young men and women in Northwest Missouri go off to war. One was an uncle who, as a Navy doctor, accompanied Marines ashore on islands of the Pacific. He saved lives. And lost some too. Another uncle was a Master Sergeant in the Army Air Corps. After service in Burma, this uncle came home and became a mortician. As a youngster my 'Uncle Wood' visited my family and told me of his post war work in the Pacific. He had joined the US Army's Graves Registration Service. For years he helped reinter those who had lost their lives on distant Pacific isles, far from home. He prepared them for burial here in the Punchbowl. In "Puowaina." This "Hill of Sacrifice." I particularly remember his telling me about preparing Ernie Pyle to come here, to his final rest. This very special uncle later rejoined and ultimately retired from the US Air Force as a veteran of three wars .... the last, Vietnam. He spent the remainder of his life in service to veterans. He and his wife made sure that every place they lived was near a veterans hospital so he could volunteer and serve. His was a selfless life of service to country ... and to veterans. That is the reason I return here so often. That is the reason I am honored to be among you this evening.

I grew up understanding the citizen soldier tradition of our great country. I saw my neighbors set aside their tools and leave their homes when their country called. A product of the Korean War, I entered the Navy but had no intention of remaining on active duty when my time was up. But I did. And I am proud of my service.

For most Americans, we are still a nation of citizen solders. Most interred here in Punchbowl are those citizen soldiers. That American tradition of answering the call of duty is what began our nation ... at Lexington ... at Concord ... over two hundred years ago ... when citizens took down guns from above their mantles and fought for what they believed. When the first to give the ultimate sacrifice for his country, Cripus Attucks, an African American, gave his life for his nation's independence. A call. A sacrifice.

Citizen soldiers. Answering the call to duty. From their country.

I want you to think about that for a moment. What I have just described is something unique that may define what it is to be an American. All Americans, regardless of their origins or what they believe. Regardless of their politics. Regardless of how they feel about war.

Becoming citizen soldiers. Men and women understanding that "soldiering," that is serving their nation in the armed forces as Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine, is part of what citizenship is all about. Men and women who take an oath that begins, "I do solemnly swear' and ends with "--- if necessary, with my life -- so help me God."

More than 40 million Americans have responded to that call and served their country in wartime. More than one million Americans who heard that call did not come home. "if necessary, with my life ... so help me God."

This message of citizenship was recounted in a special way Thursday when members of the famous NISEI 100th Battalion of the 442nd Infantry Regiment came here and talked with school children about their lives, about their experiences, about their country. Years ago their citizenship and loyalty were tragically questioned. But the NISEI proved otherwise. As citizen soldiers, they honored the traditions of our nation. And then they honored themselves, as they became the most highly decorated Army Battalion of W.W.II. President Truman told them, "You fought for the free nations of the world. You fought not only the enemy. You fought prejudice. And you won."

We do not define citizenship by country of origin. We are all Americans. Service to others over service to self is what makes it so. Senator Inouye, with us this evening, is a reminder of a life of selfless service to country.

And this same thought came home to me at noon today as I walked the Punchbowl and watched Scouts of every national origin distribute flower leis among the graves. Memorial Day takes place in May because that is the time when flowers come in bloom. MG John Logan declared after the Civil War that all military graves should be decorated with the "choicest flowers of springtime.² He said, "We should guard their graves with cared vigilance ... let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic."

One cannot forget, when you walk in this beautiful place. And you cannot miss the names that describe the diversity that is our nation. You see the names. They are all about us. Will Bianchi, of the Philippine Scouts, Bataan. Robert McCard, Marine Tank Commander, Saipan. Herbert Pililaau, at ŒPia-ri' Korea. Joseph Sarnoski, shot down over the Solomon Islands. And Rodney Yano, Air Cavalry, Bien Hao, Vietnam. All who served gallantly. All who we honor and remember today. All who are here in this "Hill of Sacrifice." All who earned our honor and respect. All who earned from our United States of America, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Sergeant Yano saved others by giving selflessly his own life. Those he saved could well be among the thousands who now count ourselves as Vietnam Veterans. Vietnam was the ultimate test of the citizen soldier. Not a popular war, those who answered the call of our country deserve a special place in any hall of heroes. Like those who left their homes with their muskets over 200 hundred years ago, they didn't stop to question. They didn't debate. They just knew their country called. So they went. And they sacrificed. The names of 2489 are engraved and recounted here and honored in Honolulu's "Courts Of The Missing. if They did not come home. But thousands did. Many who are with us this evening.

Vietnam veterans not only deserve our honor and respect for their selfless willingness to serve, they also deserve our respect for what they have become. Vietnam veterans will be found in our Congress and in our state houses and in every hall of government. Vietnam veterans returned home to build families and build businesses and populate universities. Today many return to Vietnam to help build understanding. Understanding within their own lives, and a new understanding among nations. I recall when Roger Enrico, Chair of PepsiCo, and who as a young Navy officer provided fuel to the Marines in Chu Lai, took his son to Saigon and then traveled north to Danang and Hue and on to Hanoi. It has always been our returning veterans who have taken up the mantles of leadership in our country.

Those who serve our nation in times of war determine our history. Those who come home with the lessons of war determine our future.

And when you and I honor those who did not come home from war, we define ourselves as a nation. Tonight we observe Memorial Day. Tonight we stand in "Puowaina," the "Hill of Sacrifice." To the Hawaiians, this was consecrated and hallowed ground. It is to us as well. And no one understood or said it better than Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg so many years ago, ... "We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here .

Those here tonight will never forget. As long as there is a Punchbowl, "Puowaina", we can never forget.