The president, his voice cracking with emotion, comforted the grieving families of the air crash victims who included not only many of the nation's top business leaders, but also a mix of Commerce Department civil servants and military personnel. "Today we come to a place that has seen too many sad homecomings," Clinton said, "because this is where we in America bring home our own, those who have given their lives in the service of their country."
Clinton, accompanied by his wife and Vice President Al Gore, consoled each family in private. Then, with his voice often near breaking, the president said, "Their loved ones were proud of what they were doing. They believed in their country and they believed they could make a difference."
They lined up in the rain, out the door, down the block and around the corner.
On an unusually cold spring day in Washington, they stood quietly under brightly colored umbrellas which seemed strangely out of place, waiting for their turn to say goodbye.
They were staff from the Commerce Department, other government employees, friends, and even visitors, touched by the deaths of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and those who had gone to Croatia with him. While a military honor guard stood by the casket in the department's main lobby, they filed quietly through. Highlighted by television lights the flag-draped casket stood solemnly in the center of the formal marble room.
The President, Vice President and Cabinet Secretaries were gone. Tomorrow there would be an official funeral at the National Cathedral, and then the procession would drive through Washington's Shaw neighborhood on its way to Arlingtron National Cemetery. But for now it was their brief, heartfelt moment in history to be alone with their thoughts in a very public place.