NAVY CAPTAIN HONORED BY UNIVERSITY'S REGENT

SIKESTON -- Speaking to a Memorial Day audience at the dedication of a veteran's park, Navy Capt. Fred Crecelius said the threat of global warfare is at its lowest level in almost 50 years because of the sacrifices of American veterans.

"Who would have thought a little more than a year ago that we would, or would even hoped that our children would, live to see the Berlin Wall come down, the end of communism in Eastern Europe, and finally, the breakup of the Soviet Empire into states seeking democracy?" Crecelius said Monday.

During the program, Crecelius, a 1969 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, was awarded the first Board of Regents Alumni Merit Award by Lynn Dempster, a member of the university Board of Regents. Crecelius, who serves as the director of presidential contingency programs at the White House, is a native of East Prairie.

"Things we thought would never change have been altered irrevocably, for better or for worse, and in ways we are yet to fully understand," said Crecelius.

"We know, for instance, that global war is far less likely today than it was even five years ago. As a person who is charged with the responsibility of coordinating both plans and procedures that are designed to survive the office of the Presidency, and the man himself, I can say we are far closer today to achieving a full and lasting peace than we have ever been in the last 50 years."

Cecelius said the price of liberty and freedom has not come cheap.

Like Abraham Lincoln in his "brief" remarks on the battlefield at Gettysburg 130 years ago, Crecelius said words alone cannot express the debt of gratitude that this country owes to its veterans.

"It's hard to put into words the loss that occurs when young Americans make the supreme sacrifice for their country," Crecelius said. "Lincoln realized this when he looked out onto the battlefield and saw row after row of coffins waiting to be interred in the new cemetery. How could he make sense of so many lives lost? He knew no soothing words could stem the profound grief of so many whose sons had died at Gettysburg.

"So Lincoln turned his words to the living, reminding those gathered there that it was their task to carry on the unfinished work of the fallen and to resolve that the honored dead did not die in vain, but that government of the people, by the people, and for the people would not perish from the Earth.

"Generations of Americans have validated Lincoln's words, which is why we dedicate this park," he said.

Although the threat of global war has diminished, Crecelius said the nation must not let down its guard. "The world is not automatically a safer place," he said. "The real threat today is the unknown and the uncertain. For we know that war can come, as it did in Kuwait, with a suddeness that astonishes even the most profound students of world politics.

"So as the Minutemen of Concord, we must remain vigilant, for we recognize that, after all, eternal vigilance is, after all, the price of liberty. So we will watch carefully the evolution of the Commonwealth of Independent States. We'll retain a credible presence in the Persian Gulf, as we have for years, to deter those who think they can impose their will there by force."

Crecelius said the United States today is at a turning point in history. "We are reminded, as we were in Pearl Harbor, of the costly mistake of complacency. Yet we are a democracy, and we abhor the expense of large standing armed forces," he said. "But we do admit that such forces are a necessary burden. Thus, today, we search for a balance. We need to remain strong, but not at an expense to our traditional values."

Veteran's Park is at Sikeston Municipal Airport, which was originally called Harvey Parks Field. It was one of 18 pre-World War II pilot training bases set up by the Army Air Corps.