 This was the raw land, a wilderness, a virgin land of rich soil, great forests, mighty rivers, vast plains and endless fertile prairies, towering mountains that had stood in silent majesty for long centuries as if they were giant guardians, holding in trust a land in which a new idea was to be conceived and expressed, the proposition that all men are created equal and have an inherent right to govern themselves and to pursue happiness in an atmosphere of liberty and freedom, the ultimate dream of free men of goodwill and men who would be free everywhere. But first the great human dream had to be conceived, born in the travail of violent conflict between the forces of those seeking freedom and the oppressive forces of tyranny, then given life and expression by the wisdom of those men who wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights, and further consecrated by their sons and grandsons to save those same principles and ideals, as the great American dream could never have been perpetuated as a reality. The tradition of the American fighting man began when men in buckskin first fought to protect the colonies in the French and Indian Wars some 200 years ago. Later the Minuteman at Lexington and Concord, the Continental Soldier, the Soldier in the War of 1812, the Union Soldier, the World War I Doughboy, G.I. Joe in World War II, and the Korean War Soldier, the Citizen Soldier, who served no aggressive dictator or oppressive police state, but his free country, and the ideals for which it stood. The Citizen Soldier, who by his right to vote could even choose his own commander-in-chief. Of Citizen Soldier, his symbolic of the country which he has been called up to defend. For history shows that the United States of America never has been, by nature, or free choice, militaristically minded. In 1775, the original 13 colonies had no ready military strength of their own, with which to fight for their freedom. They had to acquire strength slowly. It took them six long years of fighting to win the Revolutionary War. In the War of 1812, we were too weak militarily to prevent invading British forces from burning the White House. In the Civil War, many of our foremost military men were Southerners who went over to fight for the Confederacy. It took the North years to train and equip the army that finally won the war. Upon our entry into World War I in 1917, our regular army stood at 130,000. It took us a year to hastily raise a Citizen Soldier army of four million. And just as hastily to train, arm, equip and transport two of those four million men as quickly as possible to the aid of our exhausted and desperate allies in Europe. We and our allies won that war of conquest that had been launched by the German militarists. And having won what was said to be the war to end all wars, we stacked our arms and quickly returned to the pursuits of peace. The strength of our army dropped from four million in 1918 to a little over 137,000 by 1934. In 1939, when World War II broke out in Europe, less than 200,000 men comprised our regular army. The German and Japanese militarists were convinced that the United States was too weak to wage a successful war, that the American was no soldier. Our military unpreparedness invited the aggressors to attack. We had failed to heed George Washington's admonition. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. But continuing world events were to finally convince us of the great truth of that pronouncement made by the father of our country more than 170 years ago. We were not a militaristically minded nation, but like the strong man of peace, we did not know the extent of our strength until we had to muster our forces, fight and win the biggest war in the history of the human race. From the shores and the desert sands of North Africa, through Sicily, the liberation of Rome, the Normandy beaches, and into the heart of Germany itself, islands of the Pacific, Guadalcanal, the jungles of New Guinea, and Burma, Philippines. This, by the nation the aggressors had said, was too weak to wage war successfully. This, by the American fighting man the aggressor had said, was no soldier. But there he was, winning the victory. There were the American fighting man who gave up their blood, their suffering, and their lives, that this nation, under God, as Abraham Lincoln once said, shall not perish from the earth. These men lived up to their heritage as Americans. They fought in the best tradition of the American soldier, to win against all odds and obstacles. And so they, with the same guttiness their forefathers had displayed, achieved victory, and preserved us a free nation. The American fighting man beat back armed aggression by the communist North Korean army and then fought against the sudden massive attack of Chinese communist armies plus North Korean forces to a standstill at the 38th parallel in a war that served notice on the communists that we will fight aggression anywhere and at any time when such aggression threatens our own security, that of our allies, and of the rest of the free world of which we are a part. And in the Cold War crisis, when Russian tanks rolled up to the West Berlin border, our American tanks faced them at point blank range as the American fighting man again demonstrated his fine sense of discipline and cool courage in the midst of a dangerous, highly explosive situation. He would not be blocked. Here was strength and determination. The only language the aggressors understood and respected. We were ready and had the will to fight if we were forced to fight. This man upon whom our freedom depends. The same breed as those others who made and preserved us a nation. The American soldier has come a long way since the early beginnings of our army in 1775. In 1777, in winter quarters at Valley Forge, he suffered from cold, hunger, disease. He was ill-clothed, ill-equipped, as yet untrained. But despite the hardships, his fighting heart carried him through four more years to win the victory. Today, the American fighting man is the best-clothed and equipped soldier in the world in whatever climb he may be, from Arctic cold to tropical jungle. He is also the best combat-trained soldier the United States Army has ever produced. Where once an infantryman needed only knowledge of the rifle, bayonet and hand grenade, he is the master of a large family of weapons of great and rapid firepower. He is well-versed in tactics. Since the horse cavalry, the horse cavalry was replaced by the first armored vehicles. They were primitive tanks then, built by the British and the French, for we had no armor of our own at that time. And the advent of the tanks changed warfare from French stalemate in World War I to one of fast maneuver in World War II. Today, our armored force is one of the most potent of our ground forces, with greatly increased firepower and maneuverability. In World War II, the 155-millimeter gun, the 8-inch howitzer, and the 240-millimeter howitzer represented our heavy and long-range field artillery. Change and devastating firepower with nuclear capability have revolutionized the artillery's mission. In World War II, our anti-aircraft weapons took a heavy toll of enemy planes. In the field artillery, they too have been replaced by modern ground-to-air missiles, capable of knocking down not only supersonic aircraft, but deadly short-range incoming enemy ballistic missiles in flight before they can reach their target area. Fun saw the airplane bringing new dimension to warfare. The soldier was no longer earthbound. The April 100 United States Army planes were engaged in the San Miel Drive. They represented just about our entire Air Force. Power was to be a decisive factor in World War II. From July of 1940 to August 1945, the Army Air Corps acquired nearly 160,000 military aircraft of all types. This was an air armada to stagger the imagination, given wings to the infantrymen, to carry him long distances, to be dropped behind enemy lines, to take an objective, or to quickly reinforce a beleaguered unit. Army aviation aircraft of several types give great versatility to the movement of troops, equipment, and supplies. The soldier is ready and able to go anywhere, at any time, when emergencies arise, and with firepower he never possessed before. 1963, our capability of moving potent strike forces anywhere in the world in a remarkably short space of time was dramatically demonstrated in a joint Army Air Force maneuver appropriately named Operation Big Lift. Involved 116 combat aircraft and more than 200 Air Force troop carriers in transporting the second armored division of 15,000 combat-ready troops based at Fortwood, Texas, to Germany, in the biggest trans-oceanic Army Air Force deployment ever made. For this monumental transfer was set at 72 hours. It was accomplished in 63 hours and 10 minutes, more than eight hours ahead of schedule. Offload bases for the Army troops were Rhein-Main, Sambach, and Rammstein Air Force bases in Germany, and Chablis and Toul-Rosier air bases in France. On terminal points in Europe, the troops were moved to areas containing pre-positioned combat equipment to collect the equipment and move to an assembly area near Darmstadt, Germany to be deployed in NATO training exercises. Big Lift was an impressive achievement in planning, coordination, performance, and successful accomplishment of a gigantic operation. Yes, today's American soldier in a fast-moving technological age is a fighting man possessing greater knowledge and more technical skills than any soldier in history. From the operation of weapons of great firepower to the complexities of electronics which control both defensive and offensive systems, the quality of his leadership is second to none. From squad leader to platoon leader to those who comprise his top military leadership, they have had to master the more complex problems of modern warfare in building and maintaining a modern combat-ready army in the Cold War years with their constantly recurring crises. Since its founding in 1802, the United States Military Academy at West Point has been the principal fountainhead of professional military leaders who have distinguished themselves in three of the greatest wars in history. Eisenhower, Bradley, Clark, Taylor, the many others who distinguished themselves not only in war but in peace, soldiers all who preserved the finest tradition of the American fighting man, devotion to duty, and the determination to win the victory regardless of the odds against which they fought. In this advanced technological age, much emphasis is given the machines of modern warfare. All this scientific achievement is remarkable and most impressive. The actual ultimate weapon is not found among them. For the actual ultimate weapon is man himself. No machine or complex electronically controlled weapon, equipment, or computer possesses this. An imaginative and creative brain. And it is more than a brain that makes man himself the ultimate weapon. For together with his brain, he has a fighting heart and a soul. Something that no man-made machine can possess. A machine knows no ideals, no loyalty, no devotion to duty, no sense of self-sacrifice. As he did in the not too long ago, man could still live his life without machines. But machines could not and would not exist without man. Perhaps today, we have become so preoccupied with the marvels of our technological progress that we tend to neglect the preeminence and genius of individual man himself. The man with the brain, the fighting heart, the soul and the conscience, which have made of him a very special creature with an individuality and a God-given destiny to fulfill. To express the best that is in him, he must be free to think as he pleases, to pursue a good way of life in freedom, according to the highest social and moral instincts and within the codes and mores of a free democratic society. And the American soldier is given every encouragement to express himself as a free citizen of the country he stands ready to defend. Yet there have been and still are men and ideologies of evil purpose who have tried to make machine-like robots of masses of other men to serve as virtual slaves to think what they are told to think and to subjugate whole nations under the tyrannical concept of dictatorships and police states, the very opposite of the American concept of life under liberty and democracy. And it is that freedom that this man symbolizes and stands ready to defend the American fighting man who for 200 years has never failed to protect his country and the freedom under which he was born, lives and has his being. During those 200 years, he has never failed to answer his country's call in time of need. His is a rich heritage and a fine tradition to which young Americans add luster in the discharge of their daily duties around the world. It began in the French and Indian wars when Rogers Rangers fought to protect the colonies. They were among the first to answer the roll call. Yes, sir. Here, sir. Here, sir. Here, sir. Here, sir. Here, sir. Here, sir. Here, sir. The unknown soldier is the best known soldier of them all. For the spirit of him is the embodiment of the eternal image of the American fighting man and the echoing words of another young American who in 1776 voiced an immortal plea. I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. Whatever his name, race, color or religion, matters not. For if his immortal soul is, as the inscription on his monument states, known but to God, it is certain that when he reported in for his final tour of duty, he could proudly face his supreme commander and say, Sir, I am an American soldier who fought for the freedom and dignity of man.