President Joe Biden advised thousands of visitors at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) to “never forget” the price that democracy costs while delivering his Memorial Day remarks.
Monday’s federal holiday marked Biden’s third Memorial Day since taking office and began with a traditional wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. The president was joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff for the observance proceedings.
“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,” Biden said while delivering remarks at the Memorial Amphitheater following the wreath-laying ceremony. “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.”
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According to ANC, nearly 5,000 visitors dawn on the national gravesite every year for Memorial Day. CNN reported that around 3,000 people were in attendance this year during Biden’s speech, citing the White House.
Visitors also flocked to the national cemetery Monday to pay their own respects to the over 400,000 veterans and their eligible dependents who are buried in Arlington. Service members from every one of the United States’ major wars are entombed within the 639 acres, ANC states, dating back to the Revolutionary War.
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Like in past years, the president spent time during his speech to reflect on his late son, Beau, who served with honors in Iraq and died in 2015 of brain cancer. Tuesday will mark the eighth anniversary of Beau’s death, and Biden spoke about the pride he felt for his son’s time in the armed forces.
Biden also acknowledged that his loss was “not the same” as those who have lost loved ones on the battlefield, but he added, “as it is for so many of you, the pain of his loss is with us every day, but particularly sharp on Memorial Day.”
“But so is the pride Jill and I feel in his service, as if I can still hear him saying, ‘Dad—it’s my duty, Dad,'” Biden continued. “That was the code my son lived by and all those you lost lived by. It’s the creed that millions of service members have followed….Throughout history, these women and men laid down their lives, not for a place or a person or a president, but for an idea unlike any other idea in all of human history. The idea, the idea of the United States of America.”
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Biden also used his speech to highlight ways his administration has increased support for veterans and their families, including signing the PACT Act into law in 2022 that expands federal health care services for veterans who were exposed to burn pits during their service.
“As a nation, and people have all heard me say this for a long time, as a nation, we have many obligations, but I believe with every fiber of my being we have only one truly sacred obligation: to prepare those we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families when they come home, and when they don’t,” the president said. “It’s a sacred obligation, not based on party or politics, but on a promise, a promise to unite all of us. There is nothing more important, nothing more sacred, nothing more American.”
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According to the Associated Press, Biden hosted members of veterans organizations, military service and military family organizations, surviving families of fallen soldiers and other administration officials for a breakfast at the White House prior to Monday’s observance proceedings.
Both the president and the first lady are scheduled to spend the remaining time of their holiday at their home near Wilmington, Delaware, the AP reported.