JFK – Dedication of Memorial To The Missing – Battery Park – May 23, 1963 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection.
Since it’s Memorial Day weekend; amid traditional barbecues, days off and celebrating – a reminder it’s a day of reflection and solemn remembrance of those who never got to celebrate, never fulfilled plans, never got to drift off into old age.
This dedication, to the missing and those who gave their lives while serving in the Navy in the Atlantic during World War 2, took place on May 23rd, 1963 at Battery Park, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty with President Kennedy giving the Dedication address.
During his address some 62 years ago, President Kennedy reflected that, even though World Wars 1 and 2 offered the promise of lasting peace when they ended – the conflicts, the burden of burying the dead as the result of ongoing war, was still going on.
“We commemorate them particularly appropriately here in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. I am sure that their families who will come here and read their names may wonder on occasion whether this rather extraordinary act on their behalf was worthwhile. It is, after all, against the law of nature for parents to bury their children. Children should bury their fathers, and when it is necessary for a father or a mother to bury a son who may range from 18 to 28 with all of his life before him, it represents a special wrench. And I am sure they wonder, with all of the bright promises particularly of World War I and then World War II, what it all meant that we should be in such hazard today. I suppose it means that every generation of Americans must be expected in their time to do their part to maintain freedom for their country and freedom for those associated with it; that there is no final victory but rather all Americans must be always prepared to play their proper part in a difficult and dangerous world. These 4500 Americans did–dying in the western Atlantic–and nearly 20 years later it is appropriate for us to remember them and also remember those who in 1963 are doing the same thing not in the western Atlantic but much farther from our shores, who also on sea and land are bearing the burden of our defense.”
62 years later, it still is.
Something to remember, as you get the grill ready, crack open the beer and look forward to having Monday off.
Here is that Dedication from President Kennedy – May 23, 1963.