Admiral Mitscher, and distinguished guests here today:
It is a very great pleasure to me to have had the privilege of presenting citations to these aircraft carriers. They made remarkable records. When you read those records, you read the history of the war in the Pacific.
The carrier now has become the eyes of the fleet--its guardian. It is hard to appreciate frilly just what these carriers meant to the winning of the war in the Pacific, and the winning of the war in the Atlantic. I can't say too much of the men who actually did the work.
I had the privilege during the last month or so of having a cruise with Admiral Mitscher, and he told me some of the things that happened on those carriers. I was on one of them and watched them work. It is a wonderful thing.
It is a great pleasure to me to have had this privilege today of showing just what the country thinks about the contributions which these men made to the victory we have just won.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke after presenting the citations in a ceremony on the South Lawn at the White House at 12:30 p.m. A White House release of the same day noted that Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, Commander 8th Fleet, received the citations on behalf of aircraft carriers Belleau Wood, Bunker Hill, Cabot, Essex, Hornet, Lexington, San Jacinto, and Yorktown. Attending as guests at the ceremony were over a hundred officers and enlisted men who served aboard the ships during the period in which the citations were earned.
Harry S Truman, Remarks Upon Presenting Presidential Unit Citations to Eight Aircraft Carriers. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231872
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