MacArthur - “Old soldiers never die”
In MacArthur’s closing speech to the nation he said: “I am closing my fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the Plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished. But I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that ‘Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.’"And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away-an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye.” (Encyclopedia of Illustrations - #1542)