In 1994 he visited Slovakia for the second time after twenty years. The president Michal Kováč awarded him Slovak state honours – E. A. Cernan is the first to have been awarded by the Honour of White Double Cross and one of a few to have been given a commemorative medal of the Slovak Parliament.
During his time in Slovakia, he visited Martin, Vysoká nad Kysucou, Čadca (here he was awarded honorary citizenship), Kysucké Nové Mesto and Vychylovka.
In the village of Vysoku nad Kysucou he proclaimed the following:
" Your welcome and your presence make me feel warmth in my heart. I have travelled the world; I have seen many places and met many people. I have even been to a place where few people got - on the moon. But I was never welcomed as cordially and warmly as here, and I have never stood in such a special place as the birthplace of my ancestors is... I was here twenty years ago, I met with my relatives I had never seen before ... When I came back and told my family about the visit , I could hardly explain everything I felt. So I am glad that today, my sister Dolores daughter Tereza are here with me, because they also have Slovak blood ... When my father and mother grew old, they longed for returning to their homeland, but unfortunately they missed that possibility, and therefore I am glad that this dream came true for me and for my closest family...”
I recently looked at the photo of my grandparents. I know, somewhere inside me, there is their spirit. They went to America because their life in Kysuce was too difficult. They started there from nothing and gave everything they had to their children, so they gave me the opportunity - to live meaningfully. They only wanted us to be decent and hardworking ... they never came to the idea that their grandson could once fly to the moon. And yet! I am sure I could do it thanks to my father, thanks to his faith and values typical to Slovaks and other people in this world. I started my voyage to the Moon somewhere here, in Vysoká nad Kysucou ".
Eugen Andrew Cernan then forwarded the people of Kysuce a few precious gifts - embedded fragments of moon rocks and a piece of the protective shield of the Apollo 17, which was called a Ship of America. ,, I've given you two things that returned happily from the moon mission, the third which comes among you is me, "-he joked. In return, he got a small figure, burnt from his native land and a flutist made of wire, both of these commemorating craft and tinker tradition of the village.