Veterans Day 2025 ceremony at Battleship Missouri Memorial

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Adm. Steve Koehler, commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, speaks at the Veterans Day Sunset Ceremony onboard the historical Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Nov. 11, 2025. Koehler’s remarks recognized all the veterans who have served throughout the 250 years of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Jeremy R. Boan)

Aloha and good afternoon! Thank you for that kind introduction. Thank you to our veterans, distinguished guests, state legislators, consuls general, and all of our families and loved ones for joining us. I particularly want to thank John Gleeson, Toby Langcaon (Lan-con), and Allan Kellogg for joining us today. I’m fired up to be here. And as Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, I am honored to spend part of this special day with you.

Today, we are here to celebrate all of our nation’s veterans, and commemorate 250 years of service in our Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. That milestone matters, because after 250 years, we continue to draw inspiration, and unity of purpose, from our first battles. America’s military was born
during the Revolutionary War, and performed well under fire from the beginning. From Lexington and Concord, to Saratoga and Yorktown, the revolution witnessed the rise of a powerful Continental Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

Our Marines saw their first successful amphibious operation at Nassau, in the Bahamas. And from the first years of our Navy, came one of the most famous Naval sayings of all time. On September 23^rd, 1779, the father of our Navy, Commodore John Paul Jones, engaged the Royal Navy in battle in the North Sea. When the British commander demanded his surrender, Jones famously replied, “I have not yet begun to fight.” Neither had his crew. Against the odds, they captured the British warship Serapis in a major defeat for the Royal Navy.

Together, our first veterans won America’s independence. But victory was not preordained. Nor did it happen by accident. It happened because those tenacious Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines took the fight to the enemy, executed with the full commitment, and won.

Adm. Steve Koehler, commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and his wife Gina render honors during the playing of the national anthem at the Veterans Day Sunset Ceremony onboard the historical Battleship Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Nov. 11, 2025. Koehler’s remarks recognized all the veterans who have served throughout the 250 years of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Jeremy R. Boan)

Ever since then, our country has relied on that sort of tenacity in all our military services to win our battles. For 250 years, tenacious people in every generation have defended our nation from all sorts of threats.

And since those first battles, every generation has faced doubts about its will to fight -- especially from the preceding generations. Going back almost 100 years ago, there were numerous articles voicing such concerns in the 1930s. Various authors questioned whether the youth of the Great
Depression were able to meet the challenges of the day -- But they were wrong. Just a few years after these articles were published, that ‘lost generation’ proved to be the Greatest Generation.

During World War II, America’s youth crushed the enemy fleet at Midway, defeated the Nazis in the Battle of the Atlantic, and relit the flame of freedom and democracy throughout the world.

One of those heroes, Mr. John Gleeson, is with us today. John served with honor in World War II and the Korean War, and his service did not end when he took off the uniform. He flew with the Civil Air Patrol here in Hawaii, founded the Great Hawaiian Air Race, co-founded the Pacific Aviation Museum, and served as the museum’s director.

At the museum, he had a message for younger generations, which was “Enjoy your freedom -- we almost lost it.” That is a message I feel personally. I thank you John, and all veterans who provided an example that all current servicemembers can use as the model to maintain.

The memorials and museums here at Pearl Harbor are a powerful reminder of John’s message, and a testament to the power of our nation’s founding ideals.

They also remind us that the unbroken line of veterans who have defended those ideals -- for a quarter millennium -- are what makes America great.

USS MISSOURI is a memorial today not just because it was a great battleship, but because of the people onboard who drove it to victory. And more than that, it is living proof of American tenacity across generations. From the 1940s, to the fifties, and again in the eighties and nineties, generations of Americans onboard MISSOURI took the fight to the enemy and won.

Because of them, and millions of veterans like them, the flame of freedom still burns brightly in this land.

Today, like John Gleeson and the Greatest Generation, America’s youth continue to commit themselves to this ideal. One that is timeless -- and just as compelling as it was in 1941, and in 1775. They are eager to volunteer for this cause which is greater than themselves. They swear the Oath just like the Greatest Generation, and take it just as seriously.

I can tell you, from training and leading them for almost forty years, they are still the world’s finest. Our military is powered by their professionalism and combat readiness. And by their stewardship, teamwork, and resiliency. Our fleet sails on the ocean of their deep commitment to this country. Our numerous deployed units continue to excel, every day, far and wide, in all domains, as they uphold international law and defend our free and open Indo-Pacific.

They are truly what makes our joint force number one, and their impressive accomplishments throughout the region speak for themselves. As just one example, in the last two years, our Navy has operated in the most combat-intensive period we have experienced in decades. The recent conflict in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden between the Houthis and our fleet was the most sustained and kinetic action the Navy has seen since World War II.

That fight included some of our Navy’s finest teams from Hawaii and some of our finest moments in action since the 1940s. Just as the youth of the 1930s rose to become the ‘Greatest Generation’ in World War II, our Sailors rose to meet this challenge. More than just meeting that challenge, our Sailors literally excelled under fire.

Fortunately, our warriors do not fight alone. Like our forebears, we have families and loved ones who stand beside us. Whose love and care makes our demanding profession possible. Who wish us farewell when we go over the horizon. Who brighten our days with reminders of home, and remind us what we defend. We must always take care of our families because they take care of us -- No one in uniform succeeds alone.

When our families and loved ones support us and what we do, they too serve and sacrifice for our nation. With them behind us, we are unstoppable. And when I see the promise of our new generation in uniform, and their families, on my trips throughout the fleet, I know our country’s best days continue to be ahead of us.

This day is ending, but the sun will never set on our powerful, resolute, and global joint force. It will never set on centuries of global service by America’s defenders, or on the light of their ideals. And it will never set on the mighty U.S. Pacific Fleet and our victorious veterans -- past, present, and future.

Mahalo and Happy Veterans Day!

Speech by

Adm. Steve Koehler

Presented on

11 November 2025

Date Published

14 November 2025