THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                       May 21, 1996
				   
				   
				   
		       REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
		      AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR
		       ADMIRAL JEREMY M. BOORDA
				   
				   
		     Washington National Cathedral
			   Washington, D.C.    			     



12:26 P.M. EDT
	     
	     
	     THE PRESIDENT:  Mrs. Boorda, Mike's family, Secretary
Christopher and our friends from the Diplomatic Corps, Secretary Perry,
Secretary Dalton, General Shalikashvili, members of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, Unified Commanders-in-Chief, the leadership and members of
Congress who are here, Admiral Johnson and the flag leadership of our
Navy, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Hagan; to our great Navy
sailors and all of America's Armed Forces:
	     
	     Today we come to honor and give thanks for the life of
Mike Boorda, a special man who earned a special place in the heart of
his Navy and the heart of our nation.  He lived a life that makes
America proud, beginning, of course, with his family.  His first words
upon becoming Chief of Naval Operations were, "I wouldn't be here if it
wasn't for Bettie, and I wouldn't want to be here without her."
	     
	     To Bettie and David and Edward and Robert and Anna, your
families, I know there is nothing we can say or do to ease the loss of
your husband and father and grandfather.  I hope you find comfort in
the love and respect and honor that surrounds you today, here in this
great cathedral and all throughout our great land.
	     
	     I thank you for your service to the Navy.  I thank you,
Bettie.  I thank you, Edward and Robert, for your service.  I thank
you, David, for your work on the radio.  I thank you, Anna, for your
devotion and for your husband's service; and, Edward, for your wife's
service.  But your entire family is a model, a reflection of Mike
Boorda's remarkable love for the Navy -- a Navy in which he enlisted
when he was just 16.
	     
	     When he was first in his class at personnelman school in
San Diego, he was offered his choice of assignments.  Displaying his
characteristic compassion, he traded the slot with a friend whose wife
was sick and expecting a baby.  So the friend got to stay in San Diego
and Mike got shipped to Oklahoma.  Oklahoma's coastline leaves
something to be desired for people designing a career in the Navy.  But
it turned out to be a first-rate assignment because that's where he met
Bettie.
	     
	     He was commissioned an officer in 1962.  Then his star
rose fast and bright, with important assignments, from weapons officer
aboard destroyers to Chief of Naval Personnel, to Commander-in-Chief of
our Naval forces in Europe, and CINC of the Southern Command.  And as
all of you know, two years ago just last month, he became the very
first enlisted man in the entire history of the United States Navy to
be the Chief of Naval Operations.
	     
	     At every turn he led in helping us, our country, live up
to its responsibilities as the world's leading force for freedom.  He
served two tours of duty in Southeast Asia.  As has been said today,
as Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces in Southern Europe, he ordered
the first offensive action in NATO's history, the strikes against
Bosnian Serb aircraft violating the no-fly zone.

	     I know his family is especially proud of the role he
played and the role that they supported in getting food and relief to
the war-torn people of Bosnia.  I very much want history to record that
Mike Boorda's quiet determination to do all we could do to end the
slaughter of the children and the innocents in Bosnia and to bring that
awful war to an end had a profound impact on his President and on the
policy of this nation.

	     Even after he became Chief of Naval Operations, I
continued to ask him what he thought we should do to get a reality
check on the rest of the advice I was given.  And I want to say to all
of you what I said to his family this last weekend.  It is my belief
that perhaps more than any other military officer in this country, Mike
Boorda helped to lead us to the point of peace at Dayton.  And there
are countless thousands of people alive in Bosnia today because of this
small man with a big heart, a large vision, and great courage.
	     
	     He developed new strategies to carry our Navy into the
21st century.  He spearheaded projects like theater ballistic missile
defense and the arsenal ship that have put our Navy on the cutting edge
of technology.
	     
	     Like all great sailors, he loved the sea and he loved sea
stories.  The stories about him are legion and now legend.  I'm told
that when I nominated him to be the Chief of Naval Operations, he
called his mother, Trudy Wallis, from Italy to tell her that he was
about to become the CNO.  She asked if it was a promotion.  He said,
"No, I'm already a four-star admiral."  She asked if he were going to
get a raise.  He said, "No, I'll be making a little less, I'm losing my
overseas living allowance."  She then said, "Well, surely you'll get a
bigger house."  And he said, "Actually, it will be smaller than the
Mediterranean villa we have now."
	     
	     Apparently, his mother then said, "Well, don't you have
enough time in to retire?"  (Laughter.)  Now, every family has got a
story like that.  Well, he didn't get a raise or a promotion or a
bigger house, but he got a bigger job, and he did his mother and his
family and his country proud.
	     
	     Many have said before me that his lasting legacy will be
his concern for the sailors.  He knew the people were the Navy's
greatest asset.  And every day he made the Navy stronger because he
took good care of its sailors.  He loved the blue jackets and he loved
the officers.  When he came on board a ship or entered a room of
sailors, you could see the twinkle in his eye.  Without ever ranting or
reprimanding, criticizing or cajoling, he found a way to bring out the
best of everyone, seaman or admiral, boatswain mate to battle group
commander.  Talk to him for just a few moments and you couldn't help
but like him.  You couldn't help but love our Navy even more, and want
to do the best you could for our country.
	     
	     He also understood that beyond the things that he fought
for that were material for our men and women in uniform, beyond the
better housing, the better pay, the better time at home with families,
there was, above all, the importance of caring and compassion.  Last
year in Norfolk he spoke to a theater full of sailors.  The chief
machinist mate nervously stepped up to the microphone and explained his
predicament.  His wife had recently passed away and he was left with
two young daughters.  He told the CNO that he had six months before his
retirement date, but he would have to reenlist before then, and that
meant more sea duty and separation from his children.
	     
	     Right there at the mike, the CNO asked, "So you want to
retire in June?"  The MMC meekly replied, "Yes, sir."  And right then
and there, Admiral Boorda said, "You're request is approved.  We'll
work it out."
	     
	     The Admiral used to joke about being small in stature.
Shortly after I named him Chief of Naval Operations, we were in the
English Channel together, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the
Normandy invasion on the aircraft carrier, the George Washington.  And
I spoke just as I am now, but I had the presidential lectern there.
And when I finished, he was coming up, so I pulled out the stand for
him to stand on.  And he got up, and he looked at me, and he said, "You
know, this is the second time you've elevated me in the last couple of
months."  (Laughter.)
	     
	     Well, that's the kind of sense of humor he had.  Even
though he was very small, the rest of us always looked up to him --
looked up to his ability somehow to inspire us all to do better, to
reach beyond ourselves.

	     There was reported in the press a Navy photographer's
remarks I would like to repeat who said, "Everyone was always asking me
to take photos with him.  They wanted to stand next to the best thing
the Navy had."

	     Before I came over here today, I visited the Pentagon.
And I went to the Navy Command Center to the briefing room that Admiral
Boorda began his day in several times a week to thank the staff who
work with him every day and who can't be with us here today because
they're on duty, as he would want them to be.  And they were encouraged
to tell me whatever they want.  I thought you might be interested to
know what those people who are now over at the Pentagon, doing the work
they did every day for Mike Boorda, had to say to me.
	     
	     One said, "There's a $5 bill over there on the wall.  Do
you see it, Mr. President?"  I said, "Yes, I did."  He said, "That's
the bet the Admiral had with the weatherman every time we had a
briefing.  He always bet against the weatherman.   And as of the last
bet, he was $5 ahead."  Another said that every time there was a
briefing in the morning, he brought in strips of bacon and literally
shoved bacon at everyone else.  He was always trying to share his bacon
and make people laugh about it.  A third said that the thing that meant
the most to her was that at Christmastime he literally greeted every
single sailor in the Pentagon.  No matter how much time it took, that's
what he did.

	     A young sailor in the office said that the thing that
moved her most was that she handled his correspondence and he would
never let her send a form letter.  Even when someone wrote to him and
went outside the chain of command, he would write a gentle letter back
explaining what the chain of command was.  But it was always a personal
letter, so that the young sailor who wrote would know that the CNO
really cared and really read the letter.

	     And finally, one very large African American sailor from
the state of Tennessee stood up in the back of the room and he said,
"Mr. President, how can we ever replace this man?"

	     In the Bible there is the great story of two warriors and
friends, David and Jonathan.  When they prepared to part, Jonathan
said, "Tomorrow there is a new moon, and thou shalt be missed, because
thy seat will be empty."  Mike Boorda's seat is empty and how we shall
miss his warm smile, his easy manner, his wonderful voice, his sharp
wit.  What a legacy he has left behind -- his ferocious devotion to all
of you; his commitment to give all of you a chance to be the very best
that you can be; to give our country its chance for true greatness; his
deep sense of honor, which no person should ever question; and a Navy
that is, for all of its challenges, the finest in the world.
	     
	     Now Mike Boorda's ship is moored; his voyage is complete.
But I know when the whistle blew and the colors were shifted he was
welcomed on the pier by God's loving eternal embrace.  May God bless
and cherish Admiral Mike Boorda as he blessed and cherished our lives
and our beloved America.

            END                           12:40 P.M. EDT