On 31 October, Admiral Crowe, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Ambassador to Great Britain, was laid to rest in the Naval Academy cemetery. Among those paying tribute were former President Clinton and Admiral Mullen. Following are excerpts from their eulogies.
President Clinton:
I'd like to talk a little about Citizen Crowe. I met Bill Crowe under the most astonishing circumstances. He had decided, in one of the most hair-brained, crazy, independent-minded things he did in his long life, to support me for President, for which many people in the service thought he qualified for mental health coverage. I rewarded him by asking him to head the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 1993, after which the first World Trade Center bombing promptly occurred. So it became a very serious job overnight.
Then I asked him to go to the United Kingdom for two reasons, apparently contradictory. We had to get our European allies to endorse NATO intervention in Bosnia to end the awful ethnic cleansing there. And I thought we had to get involved in trying to push for peace in Northern Ireland. The British were eager to help us through the first but wanted nothing to do with the second.
I remember the first time I saw Bill after these two things were set in motion, and he said, "I thought you wanted me to get the British to get the Europeans to get NATO to go into Bosnia. And then you turned around and infuriated them by getting Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, a visa." He said, "I'm really glad you gave me a nice house in London, because no one's ever going to invite me out to dinner."
Then after he left, our embassies were destroyed in Tanzania and Kenya in terrorist bombings. It was obvious that we were totally unprepared in terms of security to protect the tens of thousands of people who represent the United States and our diplomatic missions all over the world, including many foreign nationals. So I asked Bill, once again, to look into embassy security and make recommendations. In the last year, I've had a chance to go to our embassies in Tanzania, Kenya, and Pakistan to see the changes that have been made because of the recommendations he offered. Thousands of people can go to the work all around the world, and their families and their children can know that they are going to be safer because of his last public service, over 50 years after he entered the United States Navy. In 2000, before I left town, I gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for all these things.
Bill Crowe was a Depression-era boy from Oklahoma. Some people couldn't make a living in Oklahoma in the Depression. They had to go to California to keep body and soul together. So he was from a family of stickers. They gutted it out in Oklahoma. Out of those circumstances came a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Ambassador to the Court of Saint James's, one of the most widely admired Americans of his age, an instrumental figure in ending the Cold War.
He was one of the freest human beings I ever met. I never was in his presence that I didn't relax, that I didn't feel that I could say whatever I had to say, that I didn't know that he would absolutely tell me what was on his mind, because he was a free person. Emotionally free. Intellectually free. Spiritually free.
Presidents need free people around them, people who will think, people who realize that upholding systems like the American military is not the same as upholding the status quo. Every system, including our country itself, is organic. It breathes, it lives, it has to continually change in order to meet the demand of each new day. I was never in his presence for a second when I doubted that he would tell me what he thought, that he would respect me if I disagreed with him, and that because he was so free, the chances were overwhelming that he was also right.
Admiral Mullen:
Bill Crowe's life was a life of purpose and consequence. It was a life of learning and thinking, of study and teaching. It was a life of love and laughter. It was a life of great courage. He was never afraid to engage new ideas in his relentless pursuit of doing what was right, of being who he was and stating his beliefs. He was also never afraid to admit or to discover that he was wrong, never afraid to laugh at himself when he did. He knew he'd never find all the answers. That was fine with him. He didn't need to. It was the questions that drove him, that kept him engaged, that pushed the rest of us to dig deep when we wanted to dig in. He was fond of saying the mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's open. And his was wide open.
He was a great American. And I don't mean that in the overly simplistic or even solely military manner. Oh, he certainly had the medals and the credentials to justify his patriotism. He'd seen the ugly side of war and helped preserve a fragile peace. He was every bit the warrior statesman this country needed.
Bill Crowe helped define a time of incredible change. A true scholar, he applied his intellect to advise three Presidents and served as a bridge between the Cold War and this new era. He was a Sailor of vision who focused our Armed Forces to think and operate jointly. And he was a remarkable diplomat who understood the power of relationships.
His personal bond with Soviet Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev was legendary. But it wasn't just the relationship; it was the friendship that had the power to shake at the foundations of the global order of that time.
It was his loyalty that set him apart. He understood the power of giving oneself over to a greater cause. He also understood better than most that true loyalty was neither blind nor deaf nor mute. It always looked for, listened to, and spoke the truth. Loyalty, in Bill's view, was not simply saluting and following orders, though he certainly understood that was a big part of it. To him it meant a willingness to stand up, speak your mind, even if doing so cost you your job.
On the day those airplanes smashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, changing our lives forever, Bill Crowe was here at the Academy doing what he loved, teaching our future leaders. Some of his young students were flooded with emotion; shocked, outraged, even stating they wanted revenge. He cautioned them. He asked them to consider what America needed them to do right now. He let them ponder that question for a moment which was, itself, the answer. Think, he said. You're military people. You're supposed to sit down and think calmly. You must divorce yourself from the emotions and use your head.
It was much the same advice he gave me as I prepared for my current assignment. He also warned me, and this will come as a shock to no one, to not take myself too seriously. Bill was, is, and forever will be remembered as a faithful public servant, a towering example of integrity, and an inspiration to generations of Americans, as I am sure he has been an inspiration to each of you here today.
Let me take just a minute to acknowledge someone who has been an inspiration to Bill, his life partner, his soul mate, the love and light of his life, his wife, Shirley. Over the years, I have witnessed Bill and Shirley's dedication to each other, dedication to the families of those who wear the uniform. Shirley, I know that you challenged Bill's thinking as much as he challenged ours. And we are grateful for that.
Yes, Bill gave his time, he shared his wisdom, and left us with many fond memories. The time has now gone, we can't get that back, as much as we'd like to. But the wisdom and the memories remain, and those are things we will all hold onto. So today we bid farewell to a man who lived with purpose, who served with passion, and who, above all, never forgot that, as he himself put it, a good sense of humor oils the gears of everyday life.