Remarks to National Council of the United Service Organizations.

I BROUGHT along something to show that I am really authorized to meet with this group. This is my official insignia as the Honorary Chairman of the United Service Organizations.

It would be difficult for me to tell you how delightful it is for me to meet with any group whose chief concerns are the men and women in our Armed Services. All of you know that I spent most of my adult life in those Services. I know what America owes them. I know what they like to feel when they are away from their own homes and how much we can do, through such organizations as this, to give them the feeling that they are appreciated.

I understand that this group--this body--and I see a lot of my old war comrades out here too--but in general you represent the connecting link between the headquarters of USO and the people of our country who provide the means to make possible your clubs, your entertainment and all the things you do for those soldiers.

I think the only real thought I want to get across to you is this: I could not imagine a more worthy public service for you to be doing today. It appears certain that for some years to come our Armed Forces must be numbered in the millions, not in the size of the armed forces that we knew in those days back in the twenties and thirties. With that much of a segment of the United States out in uniform, serving under strange conditions, it is incumbent upon us, just as we educate our children in school, to let them know that we know why they are there, that we are appreciative of what they are doing, and we try to make life a little bit more homelike for them.

So if I knew of words to make my thanks as deep as I feel them, you would all probably think I am guilty of exaggeration. But I wouldn't be. I do thank you all from the bottom of my heart, from the old Viking Admiral over there that I haven't seen in years, right on down to the youngest person in the gang.

I am delighted to meet you. I thank you sincerely. I hope you are going to have a nice time. I hear you are going to have a little tour around here. I don't know if you will see anything of interest, but I hope you do.

Goodbye.