Remarks to the Community at Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota

Thank you very much. Senator Daschle, Senator Johnson, Congressman Thune; can I pronounce the colonel's name right? Przybyslawski. How's that? [Applause]

Let me say that I am also very grateful that we have been joined on this tour by several Members of Congress who are with me: Representatives Clyburn from South Carolina, Kanjorski from Pennsylvania, Kildee from Michigan, and Pastor from Arizona. And I bet there are people in this audience serving in our Armed Forces from all those States and more, and I thank them for coming as well. I thank Secretary Glickman, our Secretary of Agriculture, and Reverend Jesse Jackson, for being here.

I came here today to say that we are profoundly grateful to the people of Ellsworth and the people of western South Dakota for making all of us feel so welcome in your beautiful home State. Last night I was fortunate enough to have a chance to tour two of the proudest monuments in all of America, Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument. And earlier today, as has already been said, all of us went out to the Pine Ridge reservation. We saw what you know are the profound needs of Indian country, but we saw a great deal of promise, as well.

I'd also like to say that I am well aware, as a man who lived his life in a farming State before I became President, that the farmers and ranchers of South Dakota have not had an easy time lately. Wheat and livestock prices are low. They've been low. We have shown a commitment to see our farmers through these tough times, and we will continue to keep that commitment. And I thank them for what they do.

Most important, I want to thank the men and women of the 28th Bomb Wing. Now, I understand you're celebrating a Warrior Pride picnic today, honoring all those who have been deployed in the past year in Europe and around the world, and I've been told that this picnic will really get into high gear when I get off the ground. So I won't talk long.

I do want to say, again, to each and every one of you individually, how profoundly I and your fellow countrymen and women are for your service in Kosovo: more than 30,000 sorties over 79 days, not a single pilot lost in combat; 19 NATO Allies working as a team through the longest and most difficult military engagement in the history of our Alliance. The men and women of Ellsworth were a major force behind Allied Force. Many of you are part of the 2d Air Expeditionary Group, the War Eagles of the 77th Bomb Squadron deployed out of Fairford, sending pairs of B-1's over targets in Kosovo twice a night.

I want you to know that not very long ago, my wife and daughter and I visited a refugee camp in Kosovo full of children. The camp was in Macedonia, but it was full of Kosovar children who had literally seen the worst things that human beings can do to one another. I shudder to think how we would feel if our little children, those who are here today, had to witness those kinds of atrocities.

But they never gave up hope, in large measure because they knew the United States was on their side. I wish every one of you in uniform could have heard those children in the camps, chanting, "U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.!" Thanks to you, they're rebuilding their lives. Already they have braved landmines and other dangers so that 600,000-plus of the refugees have already gone home. They said it couldn't be done; it is being done because of you. And I thank you. The world is in your debt.

I just want to say one more time that our allies in Europe, on which so much of our security depends, told me over and over and over again how grateful they were that America was there to stop the slaughter of people because of their religion or their ethnic groups. The killing of people has no place in the 21st century if it means innocent civilians are going to be slaughtered because of their race or religion. It is against everything America stands for, and we've stopped it. You should be very, very proud.

Now, let me just say one other thing. A lot of times the spouses, the children, and the extended families of our bases don't get the credit they deserve. But I am well aware that nothing could be done without your support, and I want to thank you.

The last point I'd like to make is that this whole trip we're taking—to the hills and hollows of Appalachia, to the Mississippi Delta, to the Pine Ridge reservation; we're now going to Phoenix and on to East Los Angeles—is designed to remind Americans that even though our country is now blessed by the longest economic expansion in peacetime in our history, not all Americans have been blessed by it, and we have to have a commitment to treat each other fairly and give everyone a chance.

I also want to say that was a big part of why the United States Congress, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, recently voted to raise the pay of our men and women in uniform and improve the retirement, and I appreciate that as well.

I look around here and—all of you in uniform—I see men and women. I see people of all different faiths, races, and ethnic groups. You represent the kind of world we're trying to build for tomorrow, for these children to grow up in, and because you do what you do, we have a very good chance to build it.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless America. Thank you very much. And I want to thank the band for the music. Will you play me a little more? One more piece. I loved it. Thank you very much.