WASHINGTON — A somber President Obama lauded the “four patriots” who lost their lives in a brutal attack on a US Consulate in Libya, telling the nation yesterday that their deeds “will never be forgotten.”
Joined by a visibly anguished Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, Obama stood at attention as Marine honor guards carried the flag-draped caskets of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, former SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods and technology officer Sean Smith from a military aircraft to a hangar for the ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
The president recalled how each had endured risks to travel to far-flung trouble spots to promote US interests.
“They had a mission they believed in. They knew the danger, and they accepted it. They didn’t simply embrace the American ideal — they lived it,” Obama told mourners who included the victims’ family members and busloads of State Department employees who had traveled to the base for the grim homecoming.
“Their sacrifice will never be forgotten,” Obama said, adding that each now “is home.”
Clinton, who knew Stevens personally, spoke slowly as she recounted the first US ambassador to die in the line of duty since 1979, her voice on the verge of breaking at times.
She said she was “honored” to have known Stevens, a Berkeley-educated globe-trotter known for paying attention to the views of people on the ground where he served.
“Chris won friends for the United States in far-flung places. He made those people’s hopes his own,” she said.
She singled out his “goofy but contagious” smile and his “California cool.”
In the nationally televised ceremony, Obama spoke of the abilities and attributes of each of the men and vowed that the country would continue its tradition of engagement overseas that put them in harm’s way.
He described Doherty, a former Navy SEAL who provided embassy security, as someone who “never shied from adventure” and laid down his own life “as he tended to others.”
He praised Tyrone Woods, another SEAL on the security team, as a “quiet professional.”
He called Stevens “everything America could want in an ambassador” and Smith someone who “lived to serve.”
“They loved this country. They chose to serve it, and served it well,” Obama said.
The president said they shared in the idealism and the “fundamental American belief that we could leave this world a little better than before.”
Although he mostly steered clear of policy, Obama used the occasion to issue a firm call for continuing the internationalism that has dominated US foreign policy since World War II.
“The United States of America will never retreat from the world,” he said. “We will never stop working for the dignity and freedom that every person deserves . . . That’s the essence of American leadership . . . That was their work in Benghazi, and that is the work we will carry on.”
Quoting the Bible, Obama said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
He made no mention of the crude US-made film whose depiction of the prophet Mohammed has ignited protests across the Muslim world and triggered Tuesday’s assault on the consulate in Benghazi.
The president did, however, mention the “terrible images” of recent days.
He also recalled a brighter image — “the man in Benghazi with his sign in English, a message he wanted all of us to hear, that said, ‘Chris Stevens was a friend to all Libyans. Chris Stevens was a friend.’ ”
The president also met privately with the families of all four victims before the ceremony.
Mitt Romney, meanwhile, said that he had delayed his rally in Ohio to watch the ceremony on TV, and that he held his hand over his heart as he watched. He led a crowd of about 3,000 in a moment of silence “in recognition of the bloodshed for freedom.”