The following Memorial Day remarks were made by Ambassador Fred J. Eckert, representing President Ronald Reagan, at Anzio Beach Battlefield in Nettuno, Italy, one of the great battlefield areas of World War II, on May 20, 1988, before an audience of U.S. military and civilian officials.
We gather today to remember—and to revere—those who gave their lives defending America. To them, and to those who stood with them and by them, we owe our freedom.
Memorial Day is a day to remember that freedom is not free. The long rows of graves here in the countryside near Anzio, so far from our homeland, like so many other graves around the world, like the wounds and scars so many have suffered, are reminders that others bore heavy burdens and paid painful prices to preserve our freedom.
