Pupils fire questions at defense secretary Bangor native Cohen visits namesake middle school during annual symposium

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BANGOR – For nearly an hour Friday afternoon, Secretary of Defense William Cohen had to deal with the intellectual equivalent of smart weapons as he was hit with a barrage of what he called “very incisive” questions from eighth-graders at the middle school that bears his name.

The outgoing defense secretary was attending the fourth annual William S. Cohen Aspirations Symposium.

The 60-year-old Bangor native, who served 24 years in Congress before being appointed defense secretary in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, attended the school when it was known as Garland Street Junior High School.

The written questions from the eighth-graders, which were prepared in advance in their social studies classes, ranged from what he would do when he left office to who his first heroes were to how do political leaders decide when to use force.

Force ought to be used only as a last resort, Cohen told the roughly 350 eighth-graders. When nations are trying to work out differences, “You don’t start out swinging your fists.”

Instead, national leaders must talk, even when you are trying to stop something like Serbia’s attempts at ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, he said. It is only when negotiations fail that one uses force.

The other time force is warranted is when one has been attacked, he added.

And sometimes a nation may have to take preemptive action to protect itself in the face of potential terrorist attacks.

He continued, saying the United States must prepare for the possibility that our enemies will try to attack us by hacking into computers and shutting down air traffic control systems or disrupting power distribution.

Responding to a question, he said his most difficult decision as defense secretary was to begin the air war against Serbia and Serbian forces of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in Kosovo.

It was a dangerous mission and there were skeptics who did not think a purely air war could drive the Serbians out of Kosovo and end the ethnic cleansing, he said.

It was made more difficult because of the contention among the 19 members of NATO who felt different kinds of political pressure during the campaign.

One questioner asked about American troops in Korea, which led Cohen to talk about the massacre of Korean civilian refugees by U.S. soldiers at No Gun Ri during the Korean War.

The American soldiers were “very young” and possibly not well trained, he said.

Being defense secretary has been the “most exciting period in my life,” Cohen said. “It is the most exhilarating and exhausting experience of a lifetime.”

When talking about his duties, he repeatedly emphasized his role in “recruiting and retaining the best people possible” for the military.

With all the sophisticated weaponry and munitions of the modern military, talented personnel are needed to wield them, he said. And to get those talented people, the military needs to have good pay and benefits, and it cannot deploy personnel in a way that exhausts them.

He noted that commercial airplane pilots can earn five times as much as military pilots, and can be home every weekend, while military flyers can end up flying combat missions for extended periods overseas.

Cohen is proud that while defense secretary, the president and the Congress approved the largest military pay raise “in a generation.”

And while he has met “kings, queens, emirs and sultans” in his job, Cohen said “nothing is more rewarding” than visiting American troops in the field, deployed overseas, or on the high seas.

One questioner asked Cohen whom his heroes were when he was growing up in Bangor.

One of his early heroes, along with his father and mother, was Frederick “Red” Barry, Bangor High School’s basketball coach.

Cohen admired Barry, who made him a starter when only a sophomore, because of how “cool and professional he was.”

He was also asked what books influence him and what he would recommend students read.

Cohen cited the Bible, and then went on to the Greek and Roman classics, which offer “great insight into the democratic mind.”

He urged students to read as much history as possible “to see where we’ve been and to learn what mistakes people made and how to avoid repeating them.”

When asked about his plans for the future, Cohen said he intended to remain involved with national security and defense matters through a small consulting firm he was forming with two of his longtime staff members, Bob Tyrer and Jim Bodner.

Already the author or co-author of nine books, he also plans to write some more, possibly finishing a novel he started in 1995 that was put on hold while he ran the Pentagon.

He said he has no plans to seek elective office again, nor are any ambassadorships on the horizon.

He told the students with hard work, study, discipline, and high aspirations “you can achieve almost anything.”

Cohen was also asked whether he was surprised that Bangor had renamed a school in his honor, and how he wanted people to remember him.

He admitted he was surprised by the school renaming. He sees it as a “living memorial” that could lead the curious to learn about who he was and what he stood for.

And he wants to be remembered as a typical independent-minded Mainer.

He said he hopes people remember him as being “fair-minded, tough-minded, and open-minded.”