Clinton Honors Veterans, Calls for Global Role : Military: He cites ‘a debt we can never fully repay’ during a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington. He lauds Army Rangers who fought in Mogadishu.

MARTINSBURG, W. Va. — President Clinton, in his first Veterans Day observance as commander in chief, Thursday hailed the sacrifices of the men and women who served in the nation’s military and urged the country to turn away from isolationism.

“Today we join as one people to appreciate a debt we can never fully repay,” Clinton declared in a morning ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, where he spoke before traveling by helicopter to another event at a veterans’ hospital here.

He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, gave a medal to World War I veteran Stanley Coolbaugh and cited the bravery of Army Rangers who lost 18 of their number in an Oct. 3 firefight in Mogadishu, Somalia.

He also used the occasion to plug his health care plan and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which comes up for a congressional vote on Wednesday.

In West Virginia, Clinton toured the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, chatting in the hospital rooms of Anthony Simms, 41, a Vietnam veteran, and James Overman, 71, a World War II veteran born in Jonesboro, Ark. “He didn’t have an accent,” Clinton joked later in a speech as he distributed medals to three World War I veterans.

The day marked the 75th anniversary of the end of World War I, the occasion that gave rise to the Veterans Day holiday.

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It gave Clinton another opportunity to work on his much-strained relationship with the military, an institution shown by some polls to be the most respected in American society. A foe of the Vietnam War in his youth, Clinton has had a strained relationship with the military since taking office, most notably over his policy regarding gay troops.

The President offered heavy praise for the military, calling its members the “most talented and the best-prepared . . . men and women who have ever worn our nation’s uniforms.”

Clinton asked the crowd at Arlington to recognize the Army Rangers among them who had participated in the fateful firefight and recounted what he said was the “real story” of the events that day in Mogadishu.

The Rangers had accomplished their mission of capturing 20 individuals implicated in the murders of United Nations peacekeepers but stayed and risked their lives to recover comrades in a downed aircraft, he said.

“They share an ethic that says they can never leave a fallen comrade behind,” Clinton said. “They braved hours and hours of the fiercest enemy fire.” Ultimately, 18 died and more than 70 were wounded.

Picking up a theme dear to Republican as well as Democratic presidents, Clinton said that the country cannot, without grave risks, turn its back on the world as it did after World War I.

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The United States has been “asked whether we will swell the global tide of freedom by promoting democracy and opening world markets, or neglect the duty of our leadership and in the process and in the withdrawal diminish hope and prosperity not only for our own people, but for billions of others throughout the world who look to us,” he said.

“To honor those who served in Europe and Korea and Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, in scores of posts at home and abroad, let us today resolve we will not shrink from the responsibilities necessary to keep our nation secure and our people prosperous,” the President said.

As he presented the commemorative medals, Clinton cited a phrase inscribed on medals that have been presented to thousands of veterans: “A grateful nation remembers.”

At the beginning of the day, in an East Room ceremony with leaders of veterans groups, Clinton signed a bill increasing the cost of living allowance to disabled veterans by 2.6%.

The President said that his Administration had kept its promise to release “virtually all” Vietnam POW-MIA documents, and briefly touted his health care plan as the only one that would provide comprehensive services to veterans.

Outside the hospital, Clinton thanked an admiring crowd but rejected an offer of a baseball cap that bore the anti-gun control slogan: “My wife, yes, My dog, maybe, my gun, never.”

“You keep it,” Clinton said, waving the cap away.