REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR WALLES VETERANS DAY Tuesday, November 11, 2014 Admiral Kovacich, Captain Bedoui, Ambassadors, members of the Military Attaché Corps, honored guests. Good Morning and welcome to our Veteran’s Day ceremony. I am honored to be here today on this solemn occasion and to preside over this ceremony that pays tribute to the 2,841 fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines buried here and further recognizes on the wall behind me the names of 3,724 men and women missing in action. It has been more than seventy years since U.S., British and Free French forces landed in Morocco and Algeria during Operation Torch to begin the North Africa Campaign. This Campaign was a significant turning point in the war when Allied forces gained the initiative and won a series of battles leading to the end of the war in 1945. However, the fighting in North Africa was difficult, and 70,000 allied troops were killed, missing and wounded during this Campaign. The American Army fought its first battles in the Second World War here. In the words of Rick Atkinson in his classic history of the North Africa Campaign, it was an Army at Dawn, “unready to fight, unsure of their marital skills, yet willful and inventive enough to finally prevail...” The North Africa Campaign was where many of the Allies’ great battle leaders of World War II emerged, including Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Alexander, and Montgomery. But today we gather to pay tribute to all the fallen and missing regardless of their rank and stature, and to recognize their contributions as individuals who sacrificed their lives so that others could survive. The passing of time makes it hard to remember the details of these battles. Private Nicholas Minue, the only Medal of Honor winner buried here, found himself on April 28 1943 not far from Medjez-el-bab, on a rainy, dark night when his fellow soldiers were pinned down by enemy fire. On his own, he decided to fix his bayonet and charge the enemy machine gun positions in the face of inevitable death. His courage saved the lives of his fellow troops and gave his unit the offensive spirit that changed the tide of that battle in that strategic area. From there, larger units were able to drive on to Tunis and Bizerte and end the campaign a month later. Lieutenant Floyd Draper, a gold medal winning track star who ran with Jesse Owens at 1936 Olympics, is also buried here. On January 04, 1943 he took off in his bomber in support of Allied troops pinned down by enemy fire, never to return to his base. He and his bomber crew helped protect their fellow allied soldiers and contributed to a cause much greater than themselves. These are but two stories of those buried here, but each one of those headstones and each of the names on the wall has a similar, individual story, and therefore we honor the sacrifice of all of these brave men and women. Their acts of valor helped liberate Tunisia and set the stage for later action in Italy, the Normandy landings, and eventually the end of the war in 1945. We thank the Tunisian people for allowing us to preserve the memories of the fallen here in these 27 beautiful acres of Tunisia, and we thank the honor guard and officers that joined us today and every time we hold a ceremony here. In more than seventy years since these events, many of the survivors, whom we know now as the “greatest generation,” are themselves rapidly joining the ranks of the fallen. The average age of the surviving veterans from the North Africa campaign is more than 90 years. In the years to come we will only have a handful of World War II veterans still with us. But for us, the generations that came after them, we will never forget their sacrifice so that we could remain free. So, in closing, let us pause for a few moments to reflect and ponder on what it truly means to be free -- and the cost of that freedom -- and to pay tribute to those who have given their lives so that we may pursue our own. Thank you for joining us today. I would now like to introduce Admiral Kovacich, who will give remarks on behalf of the U.S. Armed Forces and the U.S. Africa Command.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:08:12 +0000
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