♪ ♪ ♪ cement you can watch the service for colin powell anytime at c-span.org. or on c-span now on new video app. next, some attributes for the former secretary of state and four-star general. >> good afternoon. i'm going to break protocol just a little bit here andndto acknowledge my friend and his

family, his wife, alma, anne marie, linda and michael. we are here for your father, husband, and your granddad, quite a turnout that it is. if i may, president joe biden, dr.jill biden, thank you after your arcturus trip. presidentt and mrs. obama, thank you for being here and thank you for leading our nation for eight years with wit and wisdom and dignity. president and mrs. bush, thank you so much for being here with us today. he led the nation through the horrors of 9/11 and did not let us succumb to our fears. you brought us out the other side of this war and we thank you. mrs. clinton. i say first lady? or do i say secretary clinton? or senator clinton.

i will content myself by saying we thank you for your service to our nation. and we have the fondest affection for you. if at the end one can say the powers that god granted him, he is worthy of love as well as respect end of the sacrifices of many. that he may achieve what he deemed to be his task. that life has been lived well and there there are no regrets. does that sound like someone yoy know? it seems like the husband and father and grandfather right here. people ask how did you develop a friendship with the secretary and general. well, there were two disgruntled combat veterans who were not happy with the way we conducted

or leftt our lives. so it's part of the new administration which is coming into develop not only the systems that we need but worried also about the morale in our nation into much. that was a natural bonding thing. i asked him at the time, he was a major general, how do you know a good person. >> some people were great in uniform. but the fact of the matter is that they cannot lead a horse to water and there's others that look like it as well and yet they can lead people anywhere. he said the trade you'd want to see and g a leader is someone whose troops would follow hims r her anywhere. and if only out of curiosity and

somebody who would follow him and her just to see where the heck he ise' going. i asked him what to doe in the army. what is the most important thinw you learned. he said when the most important thingsai he learned was in the rotc when he learned about the first general order. sending his post until properly relieved but that didn't mean that youio said there which was warm. yes, you did that come up but how about the repair shops. they are part of your duty as well and you don't get to pick and choose what you like better. he extended it to people and he would say that i extended to the first general order of people. some we like better than others, but if you are in charge, you

can't show it. he would always end and say we need to treat everyone with a little more kindness because we don't know what isec going on in their lives. i'm going to quickly throw out a few anecdotes for you and this is a celebration of a life. and i would like to fill that picture of of him a little bit and i'm going to try to tie together a good humor that is insatiable curiosity and his comfort and his own skin. when it was absurd that the pentagon and he does me and asked if i could come down and i said sure, i will be right down. i went down and nancy hughes was out thenc door.

saying they are expecting you. well,as i went on in and there s na boombox playing. a gentle man that also included the general. in the boombox is playing sweet georgia brown. they were passing the ball around and i am not unfamiliar. but they asked me to join and then i i did. but every time they would fumble at and he would drop it. and so finally they switched off the boombox and said what is up with you. we throw you the ball and you drop it. without a grin or a grimace he looked at him and said as you

are shooting hoops i was stealing hubcaps. i thought about was all right. and it was sweet georgia brown time again. insatiable curiosity. nothing made him happier to sneak away from security detail. and when they do it in the state department they would say i'm free, i broke out. and it wouldn't be long before security would go crazy. he found them in the parking lot of the state department. walking up to an attendant and i'm not sure if this was a secretary of state to manage that i've always wondered how do you figure out who gets in the front row which means you can

eat grass and who gets in the back0 row and i said it's easy and, coming in and say good morning, it's snowing out there, the traffic is out today and we put them in the front row or second row. and they won't look right or left and then they can get out. this was so enlightening to the secretary that he asked about certain members of hierarchy and you'll have to guess. i'm not going to tell you who. the majority of them with a couple time and again in the background. well, the third had to do with the secretary and the general.

however you know them. and the very well appointed office. she knew his affection for the band abba as well as volvos. she opened up is that and presented it. immediately down on one knee and sing the entire mamma mia. to a very amused diplomat from sweden as well as they got back on track to the delegation. every saturday afternoon we would listen to them in

washington. the people's radio. this is liberation radio, if yoi will. i've got an afternoon, it is called caribbean and that is something that we really like. we will hear more about it later but we really had a great one for music tastes. and colin powell love the church and the ceremony, liturgy and the l high hands. it would make it extremely happy. everyday at 7:00 o'clock or 7:0r he would call me and we would get today ready. except on sunday and on sunday i would call at 9:30 p.m. and he

would answer the same way. he said oh, yes, i was a church. i am in a state of grace my would answer the same way every sunday. if you're not in a state of grace, who among us is. almost 40 4 years of saying opening remarks. >> i grew up in the south. and that favor him. it's called coming up on the rough side of the mountain. reverses and two courses and i will submit you to the third. this old race will soon be over. no more race to run and i will stand before the throne of god

and i will hear my savior say welcome home listen carefully and you might hear the savior say welcome home and here is your starry crown and finally some message to the kids. i talked to him once, sometimes 15 times per day. never in 40 or so i recall his day, what linda was doing, what they were all doing, with the grandkids were doing and the reason i mentioned this is because i think that is a husband and a father and a

friend i don't think we share how we really feel with our family and sometimes i think that we do take it for granted. and i wanted to know that he did not take it for granted any morning or evening i heard about it. so god bless the family. thank you. >> president joe biden, president obama, president bush, secretary clinton, distinguished leaders and guess. my heart is sad. i have lost a friend. the remarkable family, i am grateful for you to share