 In another ceremony in the East Room, President Johnson honored two women in uniform for bravery and outstanding service in Vietnam. To Air Force Nurse Colonel Ethel Hofley, the Legion of Merit. To Army Nurse Major Marie Rogers, the Bronze Star. The President took this occasion to end a long-standing inequity in the armed forces. In signing the Equal Promotion Opportunity Bill, he gave to women the same chance for military achievement traditionally enjoyed by only the men. He commended the female leaders and doers, and as he handed out the customary pens to his distinguished guests, he discovered that he had one left over. He soon remedied that, however, when he suddenly spotted a well-known leader and doer on the sidelines. On the 8th of November, Vice President Humphrey reported to the President on his 11-day tour of Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. The President asked Mr. Humphrey to brief a joint meeting of the Cabinet and the National Security Council. Also invited, the Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle. And the one outstanding thing and the most important of all that I know will give all of you great pride is his observation that the military leaders in that area, the best men that we have been able to produce, feel that we have never had a better trained or better equipped fighting force. We never had better morale found anywhere in the uniform of the United States than in those men and women who are holding high our flag in Vietnam today. It was Veterans Day weekend. Starting in Fort Benning, Georgia, the President carried the admiration and gratitude of his people to the men and women of the armed forces. And for these Americans, Vietnam is no academic question. It is not a topic for cocktail parties. Our office arguments are debate from the comfort of some distant sideline. These Americans here do not live on the sidelines. Their lives are tied by flesh and blood to Vietnam. Talk does not come cheap for them. The cost of duty is too cruel. The price of patriotism comes too high. He crossed the breadth of the land, virtually racing the sun across the sky. By noon he was in company with the Marine Corps, the El Toro and Camp Pendle. Freedom has never come to any people as a gift. It has never been held by any people who were not able and willing to defend it. The Marine Corps does defend it. The Corps was born as a commitment to freedom and it has honored that commitment every single hour of its existence. It honors it today. And thank God. Even as the President watched the planes of the Enterprise demonstrate their fighting proficiency, he pressed the search for peace. Seeking out a neutral corner somewhere in the world where men might reason to get them. The United States follows the dream of peace so we include even the seas in our search. For us, the ward room could easily be a conference room. A neutral ship on a neutral sea would be as good a meeting place as any. So long as who had come to the meeting. So long as both met halfway. So long as one did not insist that the other walk on water and work a miracle alone. After spending a night at sea aboard the nuclear carrier Enterprise, the President worked his way back across the country. Saluting the men of the Air Force at both McConnell and Langley. Our spirit is sharp. Our cause is just. And it is backed by strength. Your strength. Our cause will succeed. The President ended his journey at Coast Guard Station in Yorktown, Virginia. It was here in 1781, out of the fires of the last crucial battle, that a young nation asserted her independence once and for all. And now almost 200 years later the same spirit prevails as American men in uniform help another young republic assert and defend her own independence. Half a world away.