Prepared Remarks of Director Bradley A. Buckles
Waco Memorial Service, Houston, Texas
February 28, 2003

Ten years ago today, four young men who had dedicated their lives to the safety and protection of others, gave their lives in the pursuit of that noble cause.

Ten years ago today, sixteen other ATF special agents were wounded or injured attempting to carry out their sworn duty to faithfully execute the laws of this Nation.

Ten years ago today, scores of other ATF special agents met a murderous ambush, an experience that those of us who were not there will never be able to fully comprehend.

Ten years later, we gather to mourn the loss, to heal the wounds, and to find comfort and support in each other's company.

Ten years later, we gather to reaffirm our collective commitment to never forget.

Throughout the United States today, from New York to Los Angeles, from Miami to Seattle, thousands of our ATF colleagues are participating in memorial events. In Washington, DC, wreaths have been placed at the National Law Enforcement Memorial where the names of Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd are engraved along side the names of thousands of their fallen brothers and sisters of the badge.

We gather to mourn, but each of us will mourn in our own way. To the family members of Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd who were able to be here with us today, your grief is special. I hope you find comfort in our dedication to their memory and our enduring sympathy for your loss. To lose a son, a brother, a husband or a father brings a special pain that is borne of a family's love. To those of you who worked with Conway, Rob, Steve or Todd the loss is still something very personal. Others, like myself, did not know them, yet I can assure you that we also felt and continue to feel a profound sense of loss because they were members of our ATF family.

We gather to heal, but each of us heals in our own way. Today's events are not just aimed at our fallen heroes, but at the ATF special agents who survived that day as well. We have brought together today peer support members, our chaplain, and others that we might ensure your continued well-being. Bringing all of you together was also designed with the idea in mind that in many ways your collective experience can operate as a force for healing each other.

We gather here and around the country to renew our commitment to never forget. Each of us must find our own way to rededicate ourselves to the cause of agent safety. This is not a time to focus on the past just to remember. The memory of Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd does not illuminate the past, but lights our way into the future. We honor them not by speaking of their memory but by actions we take. Nothing we can do can ever make sense out of the senseless acts of ten years ago, but we can ensure that their sacrifice has great meaning. Law enforcement worldwide learned greatly from that tragic day. I can stand before you and say without any sense of exaggeration or hyperbole that in the last ten years, Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd have saved the lives of law enforcement officers around this country and probably even here at ATF because their deaths caused law enforcement to fundamentally change the way we operate. But, we cannot rest on our past improvements. To best honor and respect their loss we must dedicate ourselves to an effort of continuous improvement. We should never be satisfied that we are safe enough. On my wall at the entrance to my office is a framed reproduction of the credentials of Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd just as they are in many of your offices. Those credentials bear the same photographs of the young faces you see behind me. I see these faces everyday when I arrive and I see them every night when I turn off my lights. They force me to ask myself everyday whether I've done everything I can to safeguard the lives of the 2400 ATF special agents for whom I am responsible. Everyday Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd light my way.

I asked that ATF offices around the country plan some type of memorial service today that Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd might light the way of others as well. Probably half the ATF special agents today were not with us in 1993. While for those of us that were here, it seems like yesterday, we must remember that to a growing number of ATF employees Waco was something they heard and learned about on the evening news while they were in high school. We owe it to them and we owe it to Conway, Rob, Steve and Todd to ensure that the lessons of ten years ago do not stop with us.

I am honored to have had the opportunity to participate in this important memorial. It is also important to me that I have this opportunity to address the survivors of Waco. As your Director, I want to tell you something you probably haven't heard before; I want you to know how proud I am of you and your efforts that day. Your cause was noble, your intentions were righteous, and your goal of disarming a madman before he could kill and injure others is more poignant today than ever. Our only failing that day was that you encountered the unthinkable. Let us never again allow the unthinkable to become reality as we dedicate ourselves to the safety of our special agents and the public they serve. In this endeavor we must faithfully keep our sacred commitment - to never forget.