Honoring a Marine named Chafee
By JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton paid tribute yesterday to the late Sen. John H. Chafee as one of the Marines who turned the tide in the battle for the Pacific in 1942.
During the annual wreath-laying service at the Veterans Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Mr. Clinton spoke of the importance of remembering specific deeds and individuals, and talked generally about ``the larger sweep of history and the sum total of our nation's experience.''
The president set the scene of 57 years ago this week, when a force of Marines was set to the task of stopping the advance of Japanese forces, which were ``capturing one island after another'' across the Pacific.
At Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, he said, a battle expected to take six weeks took six months. ``The jungle was so thick, soldiers could hardly walk, the fighting so fierce and rations so thin that the average Marine lost 25 pounds. Every night, shells fell from the sky and enemy soldiers charged up the hills. The only weapons Marines had to defend themselves were Springfield rifles left over from World War I,'' he said.
Mr. Clinton went on to describe how the Navy and the Marines were able ``to turn the tide in the naval battle that began 57 years ago tomorrow. That turned the tide of battle in the whole Pacific, and with it, the tide of American history.''
The U.S. ``would never again be an island,'' Mr. Clinton said, now that it was allied with other peace-loving nations ``as the greatest force for peace and freedom the world has ever known.''
Lost at Guadalcanal, he said, were 1,500 Marines, ``some of the greatest of the greatest generation.''
Mr. Clinton continued, ``One of those who served at Guadalcanal was a 19-year-old Marine lieutenant named John Chafee. He went on to fight in Okinawa, to lead troops in Korea, to serve as governor of Rhode Island and secretary of the Navy and then, for more than 20 years, as a United States senator. He helped write the law that keeps our air clean. His fights for health care helped millions of veterans to live better lives. Yet he was so humble that when he received a distinguished award from the Marine Corps Foundation last year he hardly spoke about his wartime service.''
That, said Mr. Clinton, ``was the measure of one man's life who fought in Guadalcanal and survived. Today, in our imaginations, we must try to imagine the measure of all the lives that might have been had they not been laid down in service to our nation.''
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