 Now taking the reviewing stand is the Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Frank C. Carlucci, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crow Jr. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise as the colors are advanced and remain standing for the playing of the National Anthem. Please be seated. The Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal is awarded to Ronald Wilson Reagan for exceptionally distinguished public service to our country from January 20, 1981 to January 20, 1989. President Reagan, our Commander-in-Chief, rebuilt America's defenses and restored our nation to a leading role in the community of free nations. He assured this nation a defense force capable of inspiring the confidence of the American people and our allies. And which warranted the respect of our adversaries. President Reagan restored our nation's pride in itself and our nation's armed forces' pride in our uniform. And above all, demonstrated deep and abiding care and concern for the welfare of every soldier, sailor, marine, and airman. President Reagan's confident leadership and great personal courage have been an inspiration to our military men and women and reflect the utmost credit upon himself and our nation. It is my distinct honor and great personal pleasure to present Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, signed Frank C. Carlucci, Secretary of Defense. Along with the Department of Defense Public Service Medal, on behalf of each service, Secretary Carlucci also presented President Reagan with the Army Distinguished Service Award, the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the Air Force Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, and the Coast Guard Distinguished Public Service Award. Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William J. Crow Jr. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to this ceremony. Mr. President, the weather won't be like this in California. Mr. President, it is truly an honor for America's Armed Forces to pay tribute to you this morning. Equally important, we want to thank you, and to thank you sincerely for the legacy of strength you are leaving to our next Commander-in-Chief. We celebrate those contributions not in their own right, but for what they have meant and will mean to the United States and indeed to allies and friends overseas who look to our nation as the prime guarantor of their security. Mr. President, the men and women of the military services are proud of their role in the country's life. They man the battlements of freedom around the world. Behind that shield, American liberty and free enterprise flourish. And millions of the world's citizens live in peace and go about their daily pursuits unantimidated by external interference. Yet that defender's role can often be a thankless one, particularly at times that seem tranquil to an affluent and peace-minded public. Many in this audience have served through more than one of those frustrating periods when our ability to live up to our citizens' expectations and needs was badly eroded. Such was the case in the years before you became Commander-in-Chief. But if this nation can stay on the course that you have charted and led, it will not be so again. All that this society stands for, all that this society stands for will be safer as a result. And I can't think of a better measure of a man's accomplishment than that yardstick. But there is one other thought we'd like to leave you with this morning. Mr. President, eight years ago, your first inaugural address urged our citizens to believe in themselves and to work hard together to make America perform as only this country can. You quoted from the diary of a soldier, Marvin Trepto, who had been killed in action in World War I, depended on me alone. You went on to observe that not all citizens will be called upon to make the sacrifices of soldiering. But in their own lives, they could well take a lesson from the spirit of selfless commitment and hope that animated Marvin Trepto. Let me assure you, Mr. President, the service men and women gathered to honor you this morning are part of that tradition. They believe they serve a noble cause. They take pride in their labors on behalf of this great republic. This attitude has been fostered by your administration. More importantly, it has been encouraged by your personal example and your pride in the accomplishments of the armed forces. You have made patriotism fashionable again and serving in the military attractive. Your influence is reflected every day in our recruiting and retention statistics and especially in the spirit of our young people. On a more personal level, it has been inspiring to have a commander-in-chief who talks about the horse cavalry and who openly admires courage, patriotism and a sense of public duty in a very real way. That's what military life is all about. We want you to know that we have been genuinely sustained by your appreciation of our efforts and our problems as well. The love of country of which you spoke in your inaugural address has been enlivened under your leadership. We are deeply grateful to have served under you and with you for the past eight years and we look to the future of this country with confidence. As for your future, Mr. President, you will leave Washington with our greatest respect and affection. We wish you and Mrs. Reagan Godspeed and if my non-Navy colleagues on the Joint Chiefs of Staff will pardon the nautical idiom on the behalf of America's men and women in uniform, Mr. President, I wish you fair wins and following seas in all of your future endeavors. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Frank C. Carlucci. A flag embroidered with the logo of your commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution. Under its chairman, retired Chief Justice Warren Berger and through programs developed by John Marsh, the Secretary of the Army and my executive agent the commission has been helping the men and women of our armed forces salute the constitutional heritage they protect on our behalf at their duty posts around the world. Mr. President, perhaps more than any president in recent memory you have been conscious of your special responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief. This has come through clearly and you and Mrs. Reagan share our moments of pride and grief. No one in the military will forget the tenderness you and Mrs. Reagan demonstrated to the individual families of those who gave their all armed forces and for myself. Let me say it has been a great honor to serve you and to serve with you this great nation. Mr. President, let me now call your attention to the television screen and for those of you in the audience the large screen to my left to a special salute to you for all you have done for us. The United States the Honorable Ronald Reagan. Thank you. Thank you all very much and I express the thanks of my roommate who unfortunately is ill and has no voice and tried to get up and get here and I sent her back to bed. It's been my responsibility my duty and very much my honor to serve as Commander-in-Chief of this nation's armed forces these past eight years. That is the most sacred most important task of the presidency. Since our nation's founding the primary obligation of the national government has been the common defense of these United States but as I have sought to perform this take sacred task as best I could I've done so with the knowledge that my role in this day-to-day-to-day effort from sunrise to sunrise every moment of every hour of every day of every year is a glancing one compared to yours. Yes today America is at peace today her defenses are strong and she stands proud and tall in the sight of the world and the credit the gratitude of a nation comfortable and at peace properly goes not to me but rather to all of you for you have of your own free and true goodwill chosen to spend all or part of your lives to your country and your countrymen we live in an age of great prosperity and ease a time when many people your age are getting themselves established in the world in circumstances of comfort that would astonish your ancestors you've chosen a different path a path of service to country and to others rather than to self of how men and women can find within themselves qualities of self-sacrifice bravery camaraderie and true courage these are many of the noblest virtues to which humankind can aspire they are martial virtues you have made the comfortable lives of your fellow Americans possible by taking on these responsibilities by choice the luster has been restored to the reputation of our fighting forces after a time during which it was shamefully fashionable to deride and even condemn service such as yours those days will never come again but it's not just your fellow Americans who owe you a debt no I believe many more do for I believe that military in the United States is a profound form of service to all humankind you you stand engaged in an effort to keep America safe at home to protect our allies and interests abroad to keep the seas and the skies free of threat just as America stands as an example to the world of the inestimable benefits of freedom and democracy you and America with the capacity to project her power for the purpose of protecting and expanding freedom and democracy abroad benefits the suffering people of the world some might consider those words somewhat controversial but to them I just say this just ask the freedom loving people of Grenada whether American military power is a good thing or not because we remain strong because we acted when we believe we had to in the past eight years not one inch of ground on this earth fell under communist control we we cannot name the tens of millions who've been saved from that fate so we cannot ask them rather ask those unfortunate enough to have lived under communism ask them whether America should be strong ask them whether America should stand tall ask them that you don't have to you know the answer you were and are willing to fight and die for America and for freedom and democracy and some have 595 to be exact over these past eight years some have died they're not with us today because they're at God's right hand in the air and on the seas in battle or as victims of terrorism they gave their lives while in the service of their country while representing us and defending what we hold dear they volunteered they chose to serve they gave their lives they are our heroes I have seen the faces of those who served with them and those who commanded them and I know the truth of the old maxim that there is none who hates war as much as he who knows it well none who knows as well how agonizingly high are its costs how agonizing are its loss and I would like to ask right now that we observe a moment of silence in memory of those we have lost amen in 1973 at the end of the arduous war of independence George Washington took his final leave of the armies that had set America free and painted in eloquent words a noble portrait of the American armed forces that describes them and the society as a whole I might add to this very day for who he said has before seen a disciplined army formed at once from such raw materials who could imagine that the most violent local prejudices would cease so soon and that men who came from the different parts of the continent strongly disposed to despise and quarrel with each other would instantly become but one patriotic brand of brothers or who that was not on the spot traced the steps by which such a wonderful revolution has been affected and such a glorious period put to all our war-like toils but who indeed where I have at times asked myself where do you all come from how have you managed to cohere into the crack disciplined patriotic band of brothers I see before me this morning or the answer is simple you come from the southwest in the northeast from the Rockies and the Adirondacks from the inner cities and the most remote of farms you come from America and you are America's pride and on behalf of all America I thank you and pray God that you may bless you now and forever and thank you please be seated