WASHINGTON (AP) —President Donald Trump expressed the nation’s “boundless and undying” gratitude to Americans who have fallen in battle and to the families they left behind.
Trump hailed heroes in his first Memorial Day remarks as president at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.
He told the stories of two soldiers who died in Afghanistan, Green Beret Capt. Andrew D. Byers of Colorado Springs and Christopher D. Horton of the Oklahoma National Guard. He also hailed Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator who suffered lifelong injuries in World War II and attended Monday’s ceremony.
Moving ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery with @POTUS remembering those brave souls who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. pic.twitter.com/kXiu6uz5zl
— Vice President Pence (@VP) May 29, 2017
And Trump singled out his homeland security secretary, John Kelly, for whom military sacrifice is close to home.
Kelly led the U.S. Southern Command and lost his son, Robert Kelly, who stepped on a land mine on a Marine patrol in Afghanistan. John Kelly’s other son, Johnny, is preparing for his fifth military deployment. And Kelly’s son-in-law Jake is a wounded warrior.