Proclamation 5662—National Day of Mourning for the Victims of United States Ship Stark

Every year, in the beautiful springtime, the American people pause on a special day to pay the heartfelt tribute of love and remembrance to all the sons and daughters of our land who have laid down their lives on the altar of liberty. This year, our Memorial Day remembrance is tinged with fresh sorrow as we honor and mourn the brave men taken from us a short week ago.

No words of ours can pay them the full tribute that is their due: their service, sacrifice, and love of country crown their memory on this day of grief and will do so as long as there is an America that defends freedom and honors its heroic champions. Let us pay tribute, then, to the dead and injured of United States Ship STARK by making their faithfulness and courage and love our own, ever and always. Without Americans like them, there would be no land of the free and no home of the brave; because of Americans like them, the lamp of liberty burns on undimmed, unvanquished, and unquenchable.

In solemn recognition of the valiant crew members of United States Ship STARK who lost their lives or were injured, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 290, has designated May 25, 1987, as "National Day of Mourning for the Victims of the U.S.S. STARK" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this day.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby appoint Monday, May 25, 1987, as National Day of Mourning for the Victims of United States Ship STARK. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 23rd day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eightyseven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN