Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Bush Honors Nation's War Dead

Aired May 27, 2002 - 14:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, President Bush honored the nation's war dead on this Memorial Day from a very significant place.

CNN's John King reports from Normandy, France.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): Retracing the costly steps of a battle long ago, remembering those who paid the price for freedom then, and those fighting a very different war now.

GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: Our wars have won for us every hour we live in freedom. Our wars have taken from us the men and women we honor today, and every hour of the lifetimes they had hoped to live.

KING: The American cemetery at Normandy was a backdrop for a president overseas on the Memorial Day holiday. The graves are marked with crosses and the Star of David, 9,386 in all, each with a story and a place in history.

BUSH: Private Jimmy Hall was seen carrying the body of his brother Johnny, saying, "He can't, he can't be dead. I promised mother I'd look after him."

As he arrived, the president looked down on the rough water and rocky cliffs, then peered from the overlook at what the D-Day battle maps called Omaha Beach.

Earlier, services at the church of San Marguiles (ph), a simple memorial outside to the United States paratroopers who arrived June 6, 1944 to help end the Nazi siege. Some, old enough to remember, some far too young, but told by a visiting president history is calling again today.

BUSH: This defense will require the sacrifice of our forefathers, but it's a sacrifice I can promise you we'll make.

KING: There was an unspoken message: the country that twice helped liberate Europe is counting on its allies now. The French president said not to worry.

JACQUES CHIRAC, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Whenever essential values are in jeopardy, you can count on us, just as we know that we can count on you.

KING: This memorial is to the more than 1,500 Americans listed as missing because their remains never were recovered or identified after one of history's most deadly and defining battles.

BUSH: Units of Army Rangers on shore, in one of history's bravest displays, scaled cliffs directly into gunfire, never relenting, even as comrades died all around them.

When they had reached the top, the Rangers radioed back the code for success, "praise the Lord."

KING: John King, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com