DoD News, Defense Media Activity – By Claudette Roulo
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama hosted an armed forces farewell tribute to retiring Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel on Wednesday at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia.
“Today is a celebration of a quintessentially American life; a man from the heartland who devoted his life to America,” Obama said.
From his time as a boy in Nebraska, to volunteering for a war that would see him pull his own brother from a burning vehicle, to leading the charge to ensure veterans exposed to Agent Orange were treated fairly, to the Senate — where he led the fight to establish the Post-9/11 GI Bill — and then on to head the Defense Department through a difficult transition, Hagel’s career has been characterized by service to others, the president said.
“Thanks to Secretary Hagel’s guiding hand, this institution is better positioned for the future,” he said. “…But Chuck, I want to suggest that perhaps your greatest impact — a legacy that will be felt for years to come — has been your own example.”
“It’s not simply that you’ve been the first enlisted combat veteran, and the first Vietnam veteran, to serve as secretary of defense, it’s how your life experience — being down in the muck, feeling the bullets fly overhead — has allowed you to connect with our troops like no other secretary before.”
‘We Are All Americans’
One day last year, Obama said, Hagel arrived with a guest for their regular weekly meeting at the Oval Office. The man, Jerome “Skip” Johnson, had been Hagel’s platoon leader in Vietnam, and the two men had only just reconnected after nearly 50 years, the president said.
“Chuck told me about how in 1968, with protests and race riots back home causing tensions among our troops in Vietnam, and Chuck’s unit was mostly white, but Skip is African-American,” Obama said.
“As the platoon commander, he was not going to tolerate division or distrust, and he went to his men and made himself clear: ‘We are all Americans. We’re going to live together, we’re going to take care of each other, we’re fighting together, we’re going to get each other’s backs. Let’s get it done.'”
“And at that moment in the Oval Office, as these two soldiers stood before me, with Skip’s grandsons looking on, it wasn’t lost on any of us how far our nation has come. And I want to thank Chuck for that moment,” the president said, “because part of the reason we’ve traveled that distance is we’ve had men like Chuck Hagel serving and representing what’s best in America.”
“In moments when we are tested as a military, as a nation, sometimes we get distracted by what divides us and lose sight of what unites us,” Obama said.
“And at those moments, we can draw strength from the example of a sergeant from Nebraska and a lieutenant from Chicago.
We are all Americans. We live together, we sacrifice together, we take care of each other. Sometimes we have to fight together.”
Courage and Dignity
During his own remarks, Hagel said, “Over the past two years, I’ve witnessed the courage and dignity of America’s servicemen and women all over the world.
I’ve seen young enlisted and young officers do their jobs realizing that how they do their jobs is just as important as the job itself.”
“… As I will soon leave this job that I have cherished for the last two years, I want you all to know that the things that I have most respected and most admired are your dignity, your courage, and your dedication,” the defense secretary said of service members.
No high office with responsibility is easy, Hagel said, but with each challenge comes the satisfaction of doing what you believe in and knowing you are working hard to build a better world.
“We’ve made mistakes. We will make more mistakes,” he said. “But we hold tightly to one of America’s greatest strengths: the capacity and the constitutional structure that allows us to self-correct. We can change systems, right wrongs, solve problems, and start over. But we must get the big things right.
“We must recognize that there is not an immediate answer to every problem. Some problems require evolving solutions that give us the time and the space to adjust and the patience to seek higher ground and lasting results.”
In this dynamic environment, the nation must focus on building up its partners and addressing problems through coalitions that help build opportunities and create hope for all people, Hagel said.
“These are difficult and complicated tasks, but we have no choice. It will require steady, wise, and judicious use of American power, prestige, and influence,” the secretary said.
“We must never fail to always ask the most important question when making decisions in policy: what happens next.”
“With all the world’s travails and problems, it is still a hopeful world. This, I believe.”
One Last Point
“One last point — of all the opportunities my life has given me, and I have been blessed with so many, I am most proud of having once been a soldier,” the defense secretary said.
“The lessons from my time in uniform about trust, responsibility, duty, judgment and loyalty to your fellow soldier, these I have carried with me throughout my life.”
Obama and Hagel were joined at the ceremony by Vice President Joe Biden, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work and numerous other current and former senior military and government leaders.
Tested by Combat
Hagel has been an incredible advocate within government and with the American people for the Defense Department, Dempsey said.
“He’s led by example and he made tough decisions in trying times,” the general said.
“He’s a devoted family man and an exemplary person. He’s a man of character, the type of character that was forged by a working-class upbringing that valued hard work and perseverance. He’s been tested in the crucible of combat, and honed his career during a life of service to the nation.”
“His resolve is simply as solid as steel,” Dempsey said. “But his love of his country is even stronger: a truism embodied in the shrapnel that still resides in his chest, a permanent reminder of his sacrifice for America.”
In 1967, at a draft board in Columbus, Nebraska, a 20-year old Hagel made the decision to volunteer because there was a war going on, and he felt a responsibility to serve and wanted to set a good example for his three younger brothers, Dempsey said.
“Reflecting on that decision, Secretary Hagel said, ‘My father had suddenly passed away. And I just wasn’t coming together the way that I should.'”
“Well, today we can say without question that he came together all right. And I’m certain that the old World War II B-25 tailgunner, Charlie Dean Hagel, would agree,” the general said.
One Sacred Obligation
Hagel understands that America’s power and prestige ultimately rest upon men and women in uniform, Biden said.
“We have a lot of obligations as a country,” the vice president said. “We only have one truly sacred obligation, literally one.
We have obligations to the needy, to the elderly, to those who educate our children, but only one truly sacred obligation, and that is to equip those who we sent to war and care for them and their families while and when they come home from war. And no one has been more committed to fulfilling that obligation than you,” he said of Hagel.
(Follow Claudette Roulo on Twitter: @roulododnews)
