From the TNT archives: VP Cheney’s ‘03 visit to McChord included rousing speech
Almost 22 years ago, former Vice President Dick Cheney stood in a hangar at McChord Air Force Base in Pierce County to deliver a speech, motivating and drawing cheers from service members during the Iraq War.
“If we’re 99 percent successful, the 1 percent that gets through can still kill you,” Cheney said on Dec. 22, 2003 to a crowd of hundreds of personnel and family members from McChord and Fort Lewis, both now known as Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Cheney’s family announced Tuesday that the former vice president and secretary of defense died at age 84 due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, the AP reported.
He served as the 17th U.S. secretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush’s administration. He then served as the nation’s 46th vice president from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush.
News Tribune archives from 2003 recount Cheney’s first trip to Washington state as vice president. The story notes that the Bush-Cheney campaign did not win the state during the election.
Cheney told service members that the United States needed to “take out the bad guys before they can launch new attacks against the U.S.”
Cheney was a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, the AP says. In his 2003 speech, he spoke about the decision to “go after terror-sponsoring states” after 9/11 and said the United States was facing an escalation of threats.
“Defense isn’t enough. We need to go on offense, and that’s where you come in,” Cheney said, prompting cheers from the crowd of hundreds of Fort Lewis and McChord personnel and family members, according to the News Tribune report.
Cheney also presented medals to Air Force and Army personnel, including one Bronze Star, five Air Medals and two Purple Hearts. Five crew members who received the Air Medal had landed their C-17 military aircraft safely earlier that month after one of the engines exploded during a takeoff from Baghdad after enemy action, The News Tribune story reports.
After presenting the awards, Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, went to a cafeteria for a choreographed lunch with about 20 service members. The story reports that Cheney walked through a buffet line with four of the service members.
“Morale wasn’t the only thing the trip was intended to boost,” the story says, adding that the Cheneys went back aboard Air Force Two to fly north towards Boeing Field for a fundraiser. The fundraiser was in support of George Nethercutt, who ran unsuccessfully against now-Sen. Patty Murray for U.S. Senate. The event was meant to demonstrate the White House’s support for Nethercutt.
