May 23, 1963 - President Kennedy, who lost a brother in World War II and was himself the skipper of a PT boat that was sunk on August 2, 1943, said today that every generation of Americans must be ready to maintain freedom for the nation and its allies. “There is no final victory,” he said in dedicating the East Coast Memorial in New York’s Battery Park to 4,596 servicemen who lost their lives in the western Atlantic during the war. He reminded the nation that other servicemen much farther away were even now “bearing the burden of our defense.” The President flew to New York with military leaders of World War II and the present to render the homage. Thousands saluted the President on his motorcade journey from Idlewild Airport in Queens to the Battery and then uptown to the Carlyle Hotel, where he is staying until tomorrow morning. Tonight, he will attend a premature birthday celebration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Mr. Kennedy’s actual birthday is May 29, when he will turn 46.
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