Remarks Upon Arrival at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Anchorage, Alaska.

Governor Egan, Mayor Byer, officers and men of the Alaskan Command, and my fellow citizens:

My first visit to Alaska since it became the 49th State in the Union means much to me as an individual American and as President.

On the personal side, thinking back to my boyhood, Alaska for all of us--at least in Kansas--was synonymous with gold and glamor of the Yukon and Klondike; the home of sourdoughs and Eskimos; best known through Jack London and Robert Service. We thought of it as a cruel Arctic region, a new and raw possession.

Incidentally, I had an uncle who came on that adventure, but he did not find the gold and he never talked to me about the glamor.

But Alaska was new. My father, for example, was a growing boy when the Russian flag still flew here. I question that many in that day ever dreamed it would achieve statehood within their life span.

Certainly I can assure you that never for a moment did it enter my head that one day as President of the United States I would urgently recommend statehood for Alaska and later welcome it as a State into our great Union.

As so many voices express worry and fear about the future, let us remember it usually turns out as good as the effort we put into it. And Alaska is an example.

Today, flying here through five time zones, across almost thirty-five hundred miles, at little less than the speed of sound, over fertile fields and prosperous cities, this trip is an index to North American growth in my own lifetime.

Beyond the physical, I reach this largest city of the 49th State knowing that I will find in its people, as indeed I have before, the great traits of all America: a tremendous energy for achievement, a courageous persistence in mastering natural resources for human good--boundless faith in country and in God.

The changes in less than a century hearten us as we view the future. For you, that future is bound to be a bright and useful one. You are no longer an Arctic frontier, you constitute a bridge to the continent of Asia and all its peoples.

To all of them--in your energy and persistence and faith--you exemplify the stimulus of freedom, its rewards and its spirit.

Through the years you will be for them a new and close demonstration of what free men and free women can accomplish, given challenge and opportunity and the will to work together.

It is good to be here to learn at first hand something of what you are doing, what you are hoping and planning for the future. My party and I truly value these few hours that we can spend with you.

Governor Egan, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your cordial welcome and for the mementoes that you have just mentioned as gifts to me here. I cannot tell you with what gratitude I express my feelings about your generous statements.

Thank you.