President Biden marked Memorial Day on Monday with an address and wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, where the commander in chief paid homage to the men and women “who sacrificed everything to keep democracy safe and secure.”
The president referred to his late son Beau Biden, a soldier who died of brain cancer in 2015 when Mr. Biden was vice president, to sympathize with families of fallen service members whose pain is “particularly sharp on Memorial Day.”
Tuesday is the eighth anniversary of Beau’s death, Mr. Biden noted.
“Tomorrow marks eight years since we lost our son Beau. Our losses are not the same. He didn’t perish in the battlefield. It was cancer that stole him from us a year after being deployed as a major in the United States Army National Guard in Iraq,” Mr. Biden said. “As it is for so many of you, the pain of his loss is with us every day but particularly sharp on Memorial Day.”
In his roughly 15-minute speech, the president paid tribute to those who he described as making the ultimate sacrifice to protect and preserve American democracy.
“Every year as a nation, we undertake this rite of remembrance, for we must never forget the price that was paid to protect our democracy. We must never forget the lives these flags, flowers and marble markers represent: a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a sister, a spouse, a friend, an American,” he said. “Every year we remember, and every year it never gets easier.”
Mr. Biden went on to say that he believes the country’s ultimate responsibility is to take care of its veterans and their families.
“I believe with every fiber in my being we’ve only one truly sacred obligation: to repair those we send into harm’s way and care for them in their families when they come home and when they don’t,” he said. “It’s a sacred obligation not based on party or politics, but on a promise. A promise to unite all of us.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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