the story was almost over even before it had fully begun shortly after dawn on
Saturday September 2nd 1944 lieutenant junior grade George Herbert Walker Bush
joined by two crew mates took off from the USS San Jacinto to
attack a radio tower on chichi Jima as they approached the target the air was
heavy with flak the plane was hit smoke filled the cockpit flames raced across
the wings my god lieutenant Bush thought this thing's gonna go down yet he kept
the plane and it's 35 degree dive dropped his bombs and then roared off
out to sea telling his crewmates to hit the silk following protocol lieutenant
Bush turned the plane so they could bail out only then did Bush parachute from
the cockpit the wind propelled him backward and he gashed his head on the
tail of the plane as he flew through the sky he plunged deep into the ocean Bob
to the surface and flopped onto a tiny raft his head bleeding his eyes burning
his mouth and throat raw from saltwater the future 41st president of the United
States was alone sensing that his men had not made it he was overcome he felt
the weight of responsibility as a nearly physical burden and he wept then at four
minutes shy of noon a submarine emerged to rescue the downed pilot George
Herbert Walker Bush was safe the story his story and ours would go on
by God's grace through the ensuing decades President Bush would frequently
ask nearly daily he'd ask himself why me why was I spared and in a sense the rest
of his life was a perennial effort to prove himself worthy of his salvation on
that distant morning to him his life was no longer his own there were always more
missions to undertake more lives to touch and more love to give and what a
headlong race he made of it all he never slowed down on the primary campaign
trail in New Hampshire once he grabbed the hand of a department store mannequin
asking for votes when he realized his mistake he said never know
gotta ask
you can hear the voice can't you as Dana Carvey said the key to a Bush 41
impersonation is mr. Rogers trying to be John Wayne George Herbert Walker Bush
was America's last great soldier statesman a 20th century founding father
he governed with virtues that most closely resemble those of Washington and
of Adams of TR and of FDR of Truman and of eisenhower of men who believed in
causes larger than themselves
six-foot-two handsome dominant in person President Bush spoke with those big
strong hands making fists to underscore points a master of what Franklin
Roosevelt called the science of human relationships
he believed that to whom much was given much is expected
and because life gave him so much he gave back again and again and again he
stood in the breach in the Cold War against totalitarianism he stood in the
breach in Washington against unthinking partisanship he stood in the breach
against tyranny and discrimination and on his watch a wall fell in Berlin a
dictators aggression did not stand and doors across America opened to those
with disabilities and in his personal life he stood in the breach against
heartbreak and hurt always offering an outstretched hand a warm word a
sympathetic tear if you were down he would rush to lift
you up and if you were soaring he would rush to savor your success strong and
gracious comforting and charming loving and loyal he was our shield in dangers
hour now of course there was ambition to loads of that to serve he had to succeed
to preside he had to prevail politics he once admitted isn't a pure undertaking
not if you want to win it's not an imperfect man
he left us a more perfect union it must be said that for a keenly intelligent
statesman of stirring almost unparalleled private eloquence public
speaking was not exactly a strong suit fluency in English President Bush once
remarked is something that I'm often not accused of
looking ahead to the 88 election he observes and arguably it's no
exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or the other and late
in his presidency he allowed that we're enjoying sluggish times but we're not
enjoying them very much his tongue may have run amuck at moments but his heart
was steadfast his life code as he said was tell the truth don't blame people be
strong do your best try hard forgive stay the course and that was and is the
most American of Crees Abraham Lincoln's better angels of our nature and George
HW Bush's thousand points of light our companion verses in America's national
hymn for Lincoln and Bush both called on us to choose the right over the
convenient to hope rather than to fear and to heed not our worst impulses but
our best instincts in this work he had the most wonderful of allies and Barbara
Pierce Bush his wife of 73 years he called her bard
the Silver Fox and when the situation warranty enforcer he was the only boy
she ever kissed her children mrs. Bush liked to say always wanted to throw up
when they heard that in a letter to barbara during the war
young George HW Bush had written I love you precious with all my heart and to
know that you love me means my life how lucky our children will be to have a
mother like you and as they will tell you they surely were as Vice President
Bush once visited a children's leukemia ward in Cracow thirty five years before
he and Barbara had lost a daughter Robin to the disease in Krakow a small boy
wanted to greet the American vice president learning that the child was
sick with the cancer that had taken Robin Bush began to cry
to his diary later that day the vice president said this my eyes flooded with
tears and behind me was a bank of television cameras and I thought I can't
turn around I can't dissolve because of personal
tragedy in the face of the nurses that give of themselves every day so I stood
there looking at this little guy tears running down my cheek hoping he wouldn't
see but if he did hoping he'd feel that I loved him that was the real George HW
Bush a loving man with a big vibrant all-enveloping
heart and so we ask as we commend his sold to God and as he did why him
why was he spared the workings of Providence are mysterious but this much
is clear the George Herbert Walker Bush who
survived that fiery fall into the waters of the Pacific three quarters of a
century ago made our lives and the lives of Nations freer better warmer and
nobler that was his mission that was his heartbeat and if we listen closely
enough we can hear that heartbeat even now for it's the heartbeat of a lion a
lion who not only led us but who loved us that's why him that's why he was
spared