Harry S. Truman photo

Remarks at the U.S. Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia.

June 15, 1950

General Shepherd, General Cates, distinguished guests, members of the Marine Corps, and the Navy, and the Army, and the Air Force--we have unification now:

It is a very great pleasure for me to be here today. I notice that General Shepherd was very careful to state that this was not the first time that a President had been to this post. On occasions, the present occupant of the White House has visited this post before breakfast, on some of his walks--not officially.

The demonstration which we have witnessed this morning was most interesting and educational, and shows an immense amount of the right sort of training. It also shows that tactics and technique are substantially the same, beginning with Alexander the Great and down to the present day. But the application of tactics and technique is varied by the sort and conditions of the weapons with which we are equipped.

It is a remarkable thing that the maneuvers this morning were exactly according to the best of the military commanders' tactics in all their great battles. It has been a hobby of mine to study maneuvers of the great commanders in history. And those maneuvers and tactics which we saw this morning are if you will study them--the great battle maneuvers of the world; and there are some just as interesting as they can be--and they are substantially on the basis which you saw this morning.

The thing that was great about this morning's performance is the fact that the men who were acting for our instruction were men who had actually carried out maneuvers such as these in actual warfare; and you could tell that by the way they spoke, and the way they handled the situation. And that I like.

I make it a point whenever I can, whenever I see a man with a ribbon and a star of action on his chest, to stop if I have the time and discuss it with him and ask him where he got it and why he got it.

My experience has shown that most of the men who have earned those stars and battle ribbons would much rather not talk about them. Especially are they backward about talking about things of that sort to the President of the United States.

It has been my privilege, due to the fact that the greatest war we ever fought ended just as I became President of the United States, to award more Medals of Honor than all the rest of the Presidents put together. And some of the things that I discussed with those young men who received those medals make chills run up and down your spine, and make you proud that you are a member of an organization such as the Marine Corps, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Army of the United States.

On one occasion, in the White House, among the first to appear before me for their medals was a nice-looking young boy, about 22 years old, with both legs off, in a wheelchair.

And as I put the medal around his neck, I said, "Young man, you have made a great sacrifice for your country."

And he said, "Mr. President, I didn't have but one life to give for my country. If the country needs it, it can still have it." You can't beat that!

I had another young man, a Navy man, and he had been in the--what I have been used to calling the Medical Corps. That is not what you call it in the Navy, but that is what he did, anyway. He was a stretcher bearer on Okinawa--about which we were talking this morning--and he weighed, I guess, about 135 pounds, couldn't have been over 5 feet 6 1/2 inches tall; and I found out that he was a conscientious objector.

And I said, "Young man, you are about the first conscientious objector I have ever met that I thought was a real one. How does it come that you got far enough up front to win the Congressional Medal of Honor?"

"Well," he said, "Mr. President, I didn't see any reason why I couldn't serve the Lord on the front just as well as anywhere else, so long as I didn't have to kill anybody." And of course, that gave me a kick.

And another time, an infantryman it was, a great big old boy--he must have been 6 foot 3 or 4 inches tall, and weighed 220 pounds. He had been given the Congressional Medal of Honor for capturing a village in France somewhere. He had captured that village and about 156 Germans, by throwing grenades into the cellars, and when he ran out of grenades he threw in rocks, and the Germans would come out and holier "Kamerad."

And as I put the medal around his neck, I said, "Young man, I don't want you to throw any rocks at me."

"Oh," he said, "Mr. President, I wouldn't do that!" And he was more scared then than he had been when he was doing that to those Germans.

I got off on a sidetrack.

I hope that the efficiency displayed here today, and in the other branches of the Armed Forces which I have witnessed at Eglin Field and Fort Benning, will continue indefinitely.

The proudest thing that I have to refer to is the fact that I had a little military service myself in the First World War. I am prouder of that than anything I have done since.

And I want you to understand that the welfare of this Nation depends upon its soldiers, who are citizens of the greatest Republic in the world. Those soldiers are citizens first, and they are only soldiers for the protection of the Republic. And that is what makes this country great.

I can't tell you how very much I have appreciated this privilege, how much pleasure I have had in being here, and how much I have enjoyed your hospitality.

Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 1:40 p.m. at Harry Lee Hall in Quantico, Va. In his opening words he referred to Maj. Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., Commandant of the Quantico Schools, and Gen. Clifton B. Cares, Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Harry S Truman, Remarks at the U.S. Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/230802

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