Obama pays tribute to fallen service members at Arlington
Source: AP
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — President Barack Obama saluted Americans who died in battle Monday, saying the country must "never stop trying to fully repay them" for their sacrifices and noting the first Memorial Day in 14 years without U.S. forces involved in a major ground war.
Speaking under sunny skies to some 5,000 people on the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, Obama called the burial place "more than a final resting place for fallen heroes"
"It is a reflection of America itself. A reflection of our history, the wars we've waged for democracy, the peace we've laid to preserve it," he said. "It is a reflection of our diversity, of people from different races and creeds who fought for the ideals that bind us as one nation."
His appearance was an annual rite for presidents at the site of the national cemetery nestled among the verdant hills overlooking the Potomac River. It came with the number of troops stationed in Afghanistan reduced to about 10,000, from a peak of over 100,000. Monday's tribute also took place against a backdrop of the increasingly complex U.S. effort to help Iraq defeat a surging Islamic State extremist group that has been gaining momentum in recent weeks, capturing Ramadi there and taking Palmyra in neighboring Syria.
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President Barack Obama, accompanied by Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, left, Commander of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington, and the with the aid of Sgt. 1st Class John C. Wirth, lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 2015, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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