November 11 1988 Remarks Veterans Day Ceremony

### About this speech Ronald Reagan November 11, 1988 Source Ronald Reagan Presidential Library At a Veteran's Day Ceremony, Reagan praises those who fought in the nation's wars and thanks the families that sacrificed their loved ones. [Presidential Speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches) | Ronald Reagan Presidency ## November 11, 1988: Remarks at the Veteran's Day Ceremony [Play Video](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/video/mp4/1Mb/spe_1988_1111_reagan.mp4)   Fast-forward 10 seconds 0:00 [ Download audio ](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/audio/spe_1988_1111_reagan.mp3 "\(opens in a new window\)") Embed Your browser does not support the video tag. [Miller Center: November 11, 1988: Remarks at the Veteran's Day Ceremony](https://uvamiller.prod.acquia-sites.com/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/november-11-1988-remarks-veterans-day-ceremony) Download media * [Download Full Video](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/video/mp4/512K/spe_1988_1111_reagan.mp4?download=1) * [Download Audio](https://d4q9blt8qjhv3.cloudfront.net/audio/spe_1988_1111_reagan.mp3?download=1) View Transcript ### Transcript Thank you very much, thank you. Please be seated. Those who live today remember those who do not. Those who know freedom remember today those who gave up life for freedom. Today, in honor of the dead, we conduct ceremonies. We lay wreaths. We speak words of tribute. And in our memories, in our hearts, we hold them close to us still. Yet we 
also know, even as their families knew when they last looked upon them, that they can never be fully ours again, that they belong now to God and to that for which they so selflessly made a final and eternal act of devotion. We could not forget them. Even if they were not our own, we could not forget them. For all time, they are what we can only aspire to be: giving, unselfish, the epitome of human love-to lay down one's life so that others might live. We think on their lives. We think on their final moments. In our mind's eye, we see young Americans in a European forest or on an Asian island or at sea or in aerial combat. And as life expired, we know that those who could had last thoughts of us and of their love for us. As they thought of us then, so, too, we think of them now, with love, with devotion, and with faith: the certainty that what they died for was worthy of their sacrifice-faith, too, in God and in the Nation that has pledged itself to His work and to the dream of human freedom, and a nation, too, that today and always pledges itself to their eternal memory. Thank you. God bless you. View Transcript Previous [September 26, 1988: Address to the United Nations](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/september-26-1988-address-united-nations) Next [December 16, 1988: Speech on Foreign Policy](/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/december-16-1988-speech-foreign-policy) ### More Ronald Reagan speeches [View all Ronald Reagan speeches](/the-presidency/presidential-speec
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