[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 28 (Monday, July 15, 2002)]
[Pages 1148-1149]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks on Presenting the Congressional Medal of Honor Posthumously to
Captain Humbert Versace
July 8, 2002
Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. It's a--this is a
special occasion. I am honored to be a part of the gathering as we pay
tribute to a true American patriot and a hero, Captain Humbert ``Rocky''
Versace.
Nearly four decades ago, his courage and defiance while being held
captive in Vietnam cost him his life. Today it is my great privilege to
recognize his extraordinary sacrifices by awarding him the Medal of
Honor.
I appreciate Secretary Anthony Principi, the Secretary from the
Department of Veteran Affairs, for being here. Thank you for coming,
Tony. I appreciate Senator George Allen and Congressman Jim Moran. I
want to thank Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and
General Pete Pace, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Army General Eric
Shinseki--thank you for coming, sir. I appreciate David Hicks being
here. He's the Deputy Chief of Chaplains for the United States Army.
I want to thank the entire Versace family for coming, three brothers
and a lot of relatives, brothers, Dick and Mike and Steve, who's up here
on the stage with me today. I appreciate the classmates and friends and
supporters of Rocky for coming. I also want to thank the previous Medal
of Honor recipients who are here with us today. That would be Harvey
Barnum and Brian Thacker and Roger Donlon. Thank you all for coming.
Rocky grew up in this area and attended Gonzaga College High School,
right here in Washington, DC. One of his fellow soldiers recalled that
Rocky was the kind of person you only had to know a few weeks before you
felt like you'd known him for years. Serving as an intelligence adviser
in the Mekong Delta, he quickly befriended many of the
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local citizens. He had that kind of personality. During his time there
he was accepted into the seminary, with an eye toward eventually
returning to Vietnam to be able to work with orphans.
Rocky was also a soldier's soldier, a West Point graduate, a Green
Beret who lived and breathed the code of duty and honor and country. One
of Rocky's superiors said that the term ``gung ho'' fit him perfectly.
Others remember his strong sense of moral purpose and unbending belief
in his principles.
As his brother Steve once recalled, ``If he thought he was right, he
was a pain in the neck.'' [Laughter] ``If he knew he was right, he was
absolutely atrocious.'' [Laughter]
When Rocky completed his one-year tour of duty, he volunteered for
another tour. And 2 weeks before his time was up, on October the 29th,
1963, he set out with several companies of South Vietnamese troops,
planning to take out a Viet Cong command post. It was a daring mission
and an unusually dangerous one for someone so close to going home to
volunteer for.
After some initial successes, a vastly larger Viet Cong force
ambushed and overran Rocky's unit. Under siege and suffering from
multiple bullet wounds, Rocky kept providing covering fire so that
friendly forces could withdraw from the killing zone.
Eventually, he and two other Americans, Lieutenant Nick Rowe and
Sergeant Dan Pitzer, were captured, bound, and forced to walk barefoot
to a prison camp deep within the jungle. For much of the next 2 years,
their home would be bamboo cages, 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and 3 feet
high. They were given little to eat and little protection against the
elements. On nights when their netting was taken away, so many mosquitos
would swarm their shackled feet it looked like they were wearing black
socks.
The point was not merely to physically torture the prisoners but
also to persuade them to confess to phony crimes and use their
confessions for propaganda. But Rocky's captors clearly had no idea who
they were dealing with. Four times he tried to escape, the first time
crawling on his stomach because his leg injuries prevented him from
walking. He insisted on giving no more information than required by the
Geneva Convention and cited the treaty, chapter and verse, over and over
again.
He was fluent in English, French, and Vietnamese and would tell his
guards to go to hell in all three. Eventually the Viet Cong stopped
using French and Vietnamese in their indoctrination sessions, because
they didn't want the sentries or the villagers to listen to Rocky's
effective rebuttals to their propaganda. Rocky knew precisely what he
was doing. By focusing his captors' anger on him; he made life a measure
more tolerable for his fellow prisoners, who looked to him as a role
model of principled resistance.
Eventually the Viet Cong separated Rocky from the other prisoners.
Yet even in separation, he continued to inspire them. The last time they
heard his voice, he was singing ``God Bless America'' at the top of his
lungs.
On September the 26th, 1965, Rocky's struggle ended with his
execution. In his too short life, he traveled to a distant land to bring
the hope of freedom to the people he never met. In his defiance and
later his death, he set an example of extraordinary dedication that
changed the lives of his fellow soldiers who saw it firsthand. His story
echoes across the years, reminding us of liberty's high price and of the
noble passion that caused one good man to pay that price in full.
Last Tuesday would have been Rocky's 65th birthday. So today we
award Rocky--Rocky Versace the first Medal of Honor given to an Army POW
for actions taken during captivity in Southeast Asia. We thank his
family for so great a sacrifice. And we commit our country to always
remember what Rocky gave to his fellow prisoners, to the people of
Vietnam, and to the cause of freedom.
Now, Major, please read the citation.
Note: The President spoke at 3:07 p.m. in the East Room at the White
House. Following the President's remarks, Maj. Paul Montanus, USMC,
Marine Corps Aide to the President, read the citation.