White House Gaggle

By Scott McClellan
April 12, 2005

For Immediate Release
Aboard Air Force One
En route Andrews Air Force Base



5:30 P.M. EDT



MR. McCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everybody. I want to give you a
readout from the President's visit with the families of the fallen at


Fort Hood.



The President visited with 33 families of the fallen. There were
some 80 to 90 family members who were present. One of the President's
most important responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief is to visit the
families of the fallen. The President does that to provide comfort to
the families and to make sure that they are getting the help that they
need. The President would ask the families when he'd visit them -- and
so you know, let me back up, just kind of the atmosphere in the room
there.



We were at the Soldier Development Center and the families were
separated into individual cubicles so the President could visit
personally and individually with each family. It included parents; it
included wives and children -- daughters and sons -- brothers and
sister. I remember one, there was one 15 year old who had lost his
mother in Iraq, and the President visited with him individually; he was
there on his own. So the President went around to each cubicle and
visited individually with each of the families. These visits tend to be
pretty emotional. When the President first walks in to visit the
families there are often a lot of tears that are shed and, you know,
they visit for a while. They also share laughs, they take pictures, the
President signs memorabilia for them so that they can -- memorabilia
that honors their loved one.



Then the President -- one of the first questions the President
always has for the families is, "Are you getting all the help you need?
Are you doing okay?" No one can imagine what these families are going
through, but the President wants to make sure that the military is doing
all that they can to support the families during the difficult time that
they go through. And the President also lets them know that the world
is becoming a better and more peaceful place because of their loved
one's sacrifice. And he talks about the importance of completing the
mission, that's the best way to honor the sacrifice of the loved one, is
to complete the mission -- because the world is changing for the better
because of the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.
They are making tremendous sacrifices in the global war on terrorism and
we are forever grateful for those sacrifices.



You heard the President talk today about some of those sacrifices
in his remarks to the troops at Fort Hood. He also -- he talked about
the important progress that is being made to help the Iraqi people
realize a brighter future that is based on freedom and democracy. And
we are forever grateful to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to
make that happen.



And the President was honored to visit with all these families. I
think I mentioned to you all when we got on the plane that the total
time he spent there was from 11:52 a.m., this morning, to right about
3:10 p.m., this afternoon. And that whole time he was visiting
individually with the families that were present. It's always amazing
to see the strength of the family members. I remember one mother said,
you know, "Finish the job -- that's my message to you." Another wife
was saying, "We support you."



And the families were very appreciative of the visit by the
President. You know, some of them -- some of the families did have some
concerns that they expressed about some of the help that they were
getting, and the President always makes sure that we follow up on those
concerns, so we did make some notes of the concerns that they expressed
and we will be following up on those.



Q What type of concerns?



MR. McCLELLAN: It varies. The ones that expressed -- some of them
expressed some concerns, you know, it can be anything from the benefits
to just the help they're getting from the military. I think I'll leave
that to those private discussions. But the President always makes sure
that we follow up to make sure those concerns are being addressed as
best they can be.



Q Does anybody ever raise any concerns about the lack of armor,
for example? Is that the kind of stuff that comes up in these talks?



MR. McCLELLAN: I didn't hear that in any of these conversations.
Obviously, I didn't hear everything that was being expressed because I
try to stand back a little bit and let the President visit individually
with the families. But, no, I think more -- their focus was more on
just making sure that their families were being taken care of and would
be provided for, things of that nature.



Q Scott, how are the families chosen?



MR. McCLELLAN: Well, any time we go to bases the President -- the
base will reach out to families of the fallen to see if they would like
to come and visit with the President. We do that everywhere we go and
it's the base that will take the lead on reaching out to the families
and making sure that they get there. Some of those families are right
there in the area. A lot of them were from the Texas area, if not from
the Fort Hood area. And some came from other states, from other places.



Q So the President will meet with as many families as the
military gathers for him at these events?



MR. McCLELLAN: Basically. Generally speaking, yes, when we do
these things. I mean, this was a fairly large number that he visited
with today, but I remember at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, I think there
were -- one visit he had there were about 120 families, somewhere around
that, plus or minus a little bit, but it was somewhere around 120
families -- and, you know, many more in terms of the actual number of
people that were present because of the various family members.



Q How many times does this make visiting with families of the
fallen; do you know offhand?



MR. McCLELLAN: Let me check that. I need to check that. But he
frequently does this, as you're aware.



Anything else?



Q New topic? Does the President have any reaction to the
arrests of the suspects from the United Kingdom?



MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we are waging the global war on terrorism on
many fronts, and one of those is the law enforcement front and we're
going to continue to go after and pursue those who seek to do us harm
and those who seek to do harm to the civilized world. This is another
significant step in the global war on terrorism. And we will continue
to pursue those who seek to do us harm and bring them to justice.



Q Is he pleased, shocked, satisfied with what took place?



MR. McCLELLAN: He's pleased by the work of our -- he commends our
law enforcement authorities for arresting these individuals and seeking
to bring them to justice.



Q Thank you.



END 5:40 P.M. EDT