Biden mentions private loss in Memorial Day deal with honoring fallen service members

President Biden marked Memorial Day on Monday with an deal with and wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the place the commander in chief paid homage to the women and men “who sacrificed everything to keep democracy safe and secure.”

The president referred to his late son Beau Biden, a soldier who died of mind most cancers in 2015 when Mr. Biden was vp, to sympathize with households of fallen service members whose ache is “particularly sharp on Memorial Day.”

Tuesday is the eighth anniversary of Beau’s loss of life, Mr. Biden famous.

“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 mentioned. “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 that he described as making the final word sacrifice to guard and protect 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 mentioned. “Every year we remember, and every year it never gets easier.”

Mr. Biden went on to say that he believes the nation’s final accountability is to care for its veterans and their households.