"THAT IS TRUE HONOR"

Surrounded by a group of veterans who have come to be known as the “greatest generation,” the Marines’ top officer praised America’s soldiers in Iraq on Sunday as being made of the same right stuff.

“Once again another ‘greatest generation’ has stepped forward,” Gen. Michael Hagee, the commandant of the Marines, said in a ceremony at the National Museum of the Pacific War on the 62nd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.

“They don’t want to die, but they are willing to,” continued Hagee, who grew up in this small Hill Country city. “That is true honor. You cannot buy that, and we must never ever lose that.”