By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Movie director Steven
Spielberg was awarded the U.S. military's top civilian
medal Wednesday for sparking a surge of public
support for America's armed forces with his World War
II epic "Saving Private Ryan".
Defense Secretary William Cohen pinned the Defense
Department's Medal for Distinguished Public Service
on Oscar-winning Spielberg's lapel at a Pentagon
ceremony, then hosted a lunch for one of Hollywood's
most acclaimed directors.
"I'm in the Army now," joked Spielberg, adding
seriously that he wished every American could feel the
privilege of making such a movie and "a pride in their
country that right now fills my heart and soul and
makes me humble."
The medal, highest awarded to a civilian for contribution to defense, was for the bearded director's work on "Ryan" and the feeling it sparked in the World War II military sacrifice of Americans among millions of movie-goers worldwide.
The stark and poignant film, which this year won five Oscars including Spielberg's second for best director, told the story of a battle-weary platoon's search for a U.S. soldier behind enemy lines after the Normandy invasion.
Its vivid portrayal of American troops storming France's beaches on D-Day stirred audiences around the world.
"My goal was to remember unsparingly the sacrifices of my father's generation and to try to get my children to honor the past and to understand the importance of what World War II did for all of us and did for the world," Spielberg told top Pentagon military brass and officials.
"I think that today's youth have a tendency to live in the present and work for the future -- and to be totally ignorant of the past," he said.
"I just hope through films and through literature, through television and through people who are conscious of our vanishing history that we will all do more to point people backward so we can take that giant leap forward."
The public service medal has also been pinned on other well-known recipients such as former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn and World War II veteran and former Kansas Senator Bob Dole.
Spielberg, 51, won his second career directing Oscar in March for "Ryan", joining an elite group of 13 directors to get the coveted award twice.
The first sequences of the movie depicting the horror of the Normandy landings also led the movie to four other Oscars for cinematography, sound, sound effects editing and film editing.
Cohen said Wednesday that "Ryan" had a profound impact in promoting awareness of a generation of Americans who went off without question to fight World War II in Europe and the Pacific.
"I think one of the most remarkable results of that film was not only that it prompted us to go back into the past, but that it prompted so many of the veterans to come forward," the secretary said.
"For decades, many of the veterans struggled to find the right words, the right way to share with family and friends what they had suffered through during that war."
When he won the Oscar, Spielberg acknowledged his father, Arnold, a radio operator on a B-25 airplane during the war, as the inspiration for making "Ryan."
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