The heroism of the generation that fought the Japanese empire and Nazi Germany 60 years ago must be duplicated today by young Americans in the war against terrorism, the United States Navy's highest-ranking officer said Tuesday in Cincinnati.

        “It is our turn now and we are going to win this war against global terrorism,” said Adm. Vern Clark, the Chief of Naval Operations, at a banquet of the Navy League of Cincinnati at Paul Brown Stadium.

        Adm. Clark delivered the keynote address, but asked that he join in the presentation of a Bronze Star to Harold Hartman of Monfort Heights, who, 57 years ago, was a 40 mm machine gun operator on board the destroyer USS Bennion

Clark

        Mr. Hartman was part of a crew that shot down 12 Japanese planes, including five suicide bombers. But his Bronze Star was not awarded until retired Adm. James Holloway — an officer on board the USS Bennion — learned that it had never been issued and petitioned Congress.

        Tuesday night, in front of about 500 Navy veterans and active duty sailors, Mr. Hartman was given his medal by Adm. Clark and U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot.

        In his 10-minute speech, Adm. Clark avoided specifics about the Navy's overseas mission since last Sept. 11 and the possibility that the U.S. may take military action against Iraq.

        But he made it clear that whatever the Navy is asked to do, it is ready.

        “It was ready on Sept. 11 and it is ready now,” the admiral said.

        He recalled being in the Capitol Sept. 20 for President Bush's speech to Congress and the nation following the terrorist attacks.

        “We chiefs were sitting right up front and I remember him looking down at us and saying, "Be ready,”' Adm. Clark said. “Well, we are ready.

        “Your Navy possesses awesome capabilities,” Adm Clark said. “We are able to take the sovereignty of the United States to the seas of the world; and when we take it there, we take it there without a permission slip from anybody.”

        Before Tuesday night's dinner, Adm. Clark met on the plaza of the stadium with about 100 local Navy reservists and ROTC cadets, telling the young people that the Navy is “ready to do whatever our commander-in-chief tells us to do.”

        “We are fighting against an enemy that doesn't like your and my way of life,” the Chief of Naval Operations told the young recruits, who gathered on the east plaza of Paul Brown Stadium to greet the four-star admiral.

        With the high school and college-age recruits in their crisp, white uniforms gathered around him, the native Iowan who two years ago became the first reservist to rise to become the Navy's representative on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told them about his own experience on Sept. 11, when an airliner hijacked by terrorists crashed into the Pentagon, “the place where we live.”

        “There were 42 people in my command center killed,” Adm. Clark said. “This you do not forget.”

        Adm. Clark told the recruits that on the day after the terrorist attacks, he and other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met with President Bush and cabinet officers in the damaged Pentagon.

        The president, Adm. Clark said, “looked around the room at each one of us and said, "Don't ever forget what this is about.' He pointed his finger at each of us individually and said the same thing. "Don't forget.”'

        “What it is about,” the admiral said, “is freedom. There are people in the world who do not like the fact that we stand as a beacon of hope in the world.”

        The admiral has been Chief of Naval Operations since July 2000, the culmination of a Navy career that began in 1968 and included stints as a destroyer commander and commander of an aircraft carrier battle group and the U.S. Navy's Atlantic fleet.

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