Clinton, Saudi bomb survivors in Florida for memorials
President names retired general to review Middle East security
June 30, 1996
Web posted at: 9:45 a.m. EDTEGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Florida (CNN) -- President Clinton, seeking to provide solace to grieving relatives, arrived in Florida early Sunday to attend two memorial services for 19 U.S. servicemen killed in a terrorist bomb blast in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
After three days at the G-7 economic summit in Lyon, France, Clinton made a brief, private visit to Paris on Saturday night, dining with French President Jacques Chirac before flying to Eglin Air Force Base. The base, in the Florida panhandle, was home to 12 of the 19 Americans who died in Tuesday's attack in Saudi Arabia.
Forty-three airmen seriously wounded in the attack arrived home at Eglin on Saturday. Some were expected to be on hand for a Sunday morning memorial service at the base. (CNN planned live coverage beginning at 11 a.m. EDT). Many of the wounded were heavily bandaged and had to be carried off the transport plane in wheelchairs and stretchers as family and troops on the base applauded.
"I just couldn't believe we actually got bombed," said Air Force Sgt. Andre Stanton of Lompoc, California. (111K AIFF or WAV sound) Stanton had been on the fifth floor of the building demolished by the blast. He suffered severe cuts over much of his body and appeared to be still in a state of shock.
The Eglin victims died just two days before their 90-day deployment was to have ended.
Earlier Saturday, six F-15 Eagle fighters and their pilots from the 58th Fighter Squadron, one of the units that included some of the wounded and killed, returned as part of a normal rotation.
Four of the planes flew over the base and one broke off in what is known as a "missing man formation" in honor of the 19 American airmen killed.
Clinton was scheduled to meet with family members and speak at an Eglin memorial service before flying to Patrick Air Force Base in Cocoa Beach, near Cape Canaveral, to attend a second memorial service there. (CNN planned live coverage at 3 p.m. EDT). Five of the airmen killed were based at Patrick. One was from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and one was from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Security chief named
At the summit of leading industrial nations, Clinton had made terrorism the central point of discussion. Because of the Saudi truck bombing, the president announced retired Gen. Wayne Downing, a former chief of special operations forces of the Army, Navy and Air Force, was being assigned to assess security at U.S. military bases throughout the Middle East.
The president vowed that the United States will prevail in the fight against terrorism just as it did in earlier struggles against fascism and communism.
He is due to return to Washington on Sunday evening.
Correspondent Brian Cabell, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Key pieces of deadly Saudi blast recovered
- Defense chief says U.S. will stay in Saudi Arabia - June 29, 1996
- Clinton and Dole take on terrorism in radio addresses - June 29, 1996
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