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Address: Honoring Our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day
The White House
May 23, 2015
Hi, everybody. This weekend is Memorial Day – a time to pay
tribute to all our men and women in uniform who’ve ever given their lives so
that we can live in freedom and security.
This year, the holiday is especially meaningful. It’s the first Memorial Day since our war
ended in Afghanistan.
On Monday, at Arlington Cemetery,
I’ll join our Gold Star families, veterans, and their loved ones to remember
all our fallen heroes, including the more than 2,200 American patriots who gave
their lives in Afghanistan. And I plan
to share a few of their stories.
Growing up in Arizona, Wyatt
Martin loved the outdoors. To him, a
great day was a day spent fishing. After
high school, he enlisted in the Army because he believed that the blessings he
enjoyed as an American came with an obligation to give back to his country.
Ramon Morris was born in Jamaica,
and as a teenager came to Queens. Like
so many proud immigrants, he felt a calling to serve his new country and joined
the Army. He fell in love, got engaged,
and the thing he wanted most was to make the world safer for his three-year-old
daughter.
In their lives, Specialist Wyatt
Martin and Sergeant First Class Ramon Morris travelled different paths. But in December, their paths intersected as
the final two Americans to give their lives during our combat mission in
Afghanistan.
This weekend also reminds us
that, around the world, our men and women in uniform continue to serve and risk
their lives. In Afghanistan, our troops
now have a new mission – training and advising Afghan forces. John Dawson was one of them. From Massachusetts, he loved the Bruins and
the Pats. In April, he gave his life as
an Army combat medic – the first American to give his life in this new
mission. This Memorial Day, we’ll honor
Corporal Dawson as well.
Like generations of heroes before
them, these Americans gave everything they had – not for glory, not even for
gratitude, but for something greater than themselves. We cannot bring them back. Nor can we ease the pain of their families
and friends who live with their loss.
But we are the Americans they
died to defend. So what we can do – what
we must do – is fulfill our sacred obligations to them, just like they
fulfilled theirs to us. We have to honor
their memory. We have to care for their
families, and our veterans who served with them. And as a nation, we have to remain worthy of
their sacrifice – forever committed to the country they loved and the freedom
they fought for and died for.
Thank you and have a wonderful
weekend, and may God bless our fallen heroes and their families. |
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