Sebastien, ministers, generals, troops, our French friends and, of course, our heroes. The men of that day. The men of those days, the men of those weeks. The families and communities who loved them, who clung to a photo and newspaper clippings with an understanding that young men from farm towns and city kids, rich and poor and all backgrounds, had sailed to a land far away to fight for people they never knew.
Because in America and across the free world, we fight not because we hate what's in front of us, but because we love what's behind us. It's a special kind of love, a love that recognizes and understands that it requires sacrifice. You see, when I think of June the 6th, all I think of is the price of freedom.
All I think of is what it took to walk off the back of a ramp on a Higgins boat, bullets whizzing, bombs dropping, waves crashing, equipment clamoring on your body, trying to stay afloat, trying to find cover, trying to find a medic, trying to find a bunker, all while under unrelenting fire with almost no chance of success.
What motivates a man to do such a thing? I think it's love. Not just love for your country, or love for a cause, but love for one another, which, when you ask those men, they remember the man on the right and on their left. They remember the nurse that cared for them. They remember those that rest here who we honor today, who we will never forget.
You see their legacy is a gift to us and the question is what will we do with it? Will we live worthy of it? And today I think it's a moment to ask all of ourselves the very same question, could I do that? Could you do that? Could we do that? Could our countries muster that? Do we believe in ourselves enough to invest in ourselves, to project power, to defend freedom and deter war?
That's our question, that's our job at every level from the Secretary of Defense to the Minister of Defense in France and the UK, NATO and across the world, but also down to each family. Each parent, each community, each school, each church -- are we raising up young men and women who understand the price of freedom, who understand that history is not over, who understand that there's goodness and there's brotherhood?
There are things worth fighting for, but in order to cherish and have those things worth fighting for, you have to be willing to stand for them when it matters the most.
So, I want to thank all the troops here today from all countries, for the flags behind us, the coalition that continues to this day, our friends in France who continue, as you drive through these beautiful towns, to wave American flags, to wave British flags, to wave Canadian flags, because they have not forgotten.
And may we as leaders, as troops and as citizens never forget ourselves. Long live the American Republic. Long live the French Republic. And may God bless the heroes of June 6th. Thank you.