PoliticsMemorial Daymemorial day 2016Barack Obama

Obama Urges Americans To Remember Fallen Heroes At Arlington National Cemetery

"We have to make sure they get everything they have earned -- from good health care to good jobs.
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Senior Politics Reporter, HuffPost

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WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama urged Americans to remember the nation's fallen service members on Memorial Day and to honor their memories by taking better care of their families and loved ones at home.

The president delivered short remarks on Monday after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. 

“Here, at Arlington, the deafening sounds of combat have given way to the silence of these sacred hills," Obama said. "The chaos and confusion of battle has yielded perfect, precise rows of peace. The Americans who rest here, and their families, the best of us, those from whom we asked everything, ask of us today only one thing in return: that we remember them."

"Those who rest beneath this silence, not only here at Arlington, but at veterans cemeteries across our country and around the world, they didn't speak the loudest about their patriotism. They let their actions do that. Whether they stood up in times of war, signed up in times of peace, or were called up by a draft board, they embodied the best of America," the president added.

Obama also urged Americans to honor the dead by making sure service members are welcomed home with jobs and good health care.

His call to action comes amid renewed criticism of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has been under congressional scrutiny due to a heavy backlog of benefits claims and canceled appointment times. Robert A. McDonald, the secretary of the VA, came under fire last week after he compared the waiting times for veterans receiving care to standing in line at Disneyland.

The president said the nation still needs to do more on that front.

"For us, the living, those of us who still have a voice, it is our responsibility and our obligation to fill our silence with our love and gratitude and not with just our words but with our actions," Obama said.

"Truly remembering, truly honoring these fallen Americans means being there for their parents and spouses and children," he continued. "Truly remembering means that after our fallen heroes gave everything to get their battle buddies home, we have to make sure they get everything they have earned -- from good health care to good jobs. And we have to do better. Our work is never done."

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Before You Go

The Reason For Memorial Day
(01 of18)
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A pedestrian carrying an umbrella walks through a Memorial Day display of United States flags on the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 23, 2013. (credit:Brian Snyder/Reuters)
(02 of18)
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Two members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment place flags at the headstones of U.S. military personnel buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in preparation for Memorial Day on May 25, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Win McNamee via Getty Images)
(03 of18)
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A young woman lays down on the grave of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Noah Pier on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on May 31, 2010, in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)
(04 of18)
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Major Clint Kappel and his children in Section 60, the burial ground for military personnel killed since 2001, at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 2016 in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Allison Shelley via Getty Images)
(05 of18)
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A woman sits at the edge of the field of United States flags displayed by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund on the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts on May 26, 2016. (credit:Brian Snyder / Reuters)
(06 of18)
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Andi Schorr grieves at the grave of her husband Sergeant First Class George Joseph Schorr. Schorr served two tours of duty in Vietnam and died in 1979 of cancer. Memorial Day ceremony, 84th Anniversary of Remembrance at Fort Logan National Cemetery. May 30, 2016 in Denver. (credit:Joe Amon via Getty Images)
(07 of18)
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Ricky Parada sits at the grave of his little brother Cpl. Nicolas D. Parada Rodriguez, who was killed in Afghanistan, on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on May 28, 2012, in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Mark Wilson via Getty Images)
(08 of18)
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Lance Corporal Cameron Davis, of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, wraps himself in an American flag towel as he props up fallen flags while paying his respects to fellow service men and women at Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego on Sunday, May 25, 2014. (credit:Allen J. Schaben via Getty Images)
(09 of18)
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A woman walks past graves on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on May 25, 2015. (credit:Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
(10 of18)
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Angela Spraul and her daughter Ava, 4, sit at the grave of her husband, John Spraul, U.S. Navy, on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery on May 25, 2015, in Arlington, Virginia. (credit:Gabriella Demczuk via Getty Images)
(11 of18)
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An Iraq War veteran sits and drinks a beer beside the symbolic graves of fallen friends, Sgt. Eric Snell and Pfc Michael Pittman, both from his former unit, the 1st Infantry Division, at the Arlington West Memorial on Memorial Day in Santa Monica, California, on May 30, 2011. (credit:MARK RALSTON via Getty Images)
(12 of18)
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Felicity Bohn 11 of Littleton, Colorado visits the grave of Gregory P. Rund USMC. He was a close high school friend of her mother Lauren where they were survivors of the Columbine shootings. Lance Corporal Rund died Dec. 11 2004 as result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic achievement in connection with combat operations (credit:Joe Amon via Getty Images)
(13 of18)
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Nathaniel Marley, 4, salutes the graves of service men and women as well as his grandpa as he is taught to pay respects and say thank you by his father, U.S. Army veteran Bruce Marley, of San Diego, not pictured, on a Memorial Day weekend at Rosecrans National Cemetery overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Point Loma, San Diego. (credit:Allen J. Schaben via Getty Images)
(14 of18)
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Jeff Lee of Lantana, Florida, leans against the gravestone of his father, Frank Lee, during a Memorial Day ceremony at the South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth, Florida, on May 27, 2013. (credit:Joe Skipper/Reuters)
(15 of18)
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Navy veteran Ron White pauses to reflect for a moment as he adds the names of over 2,000 fallen military personnel who served in the war in Afghanistan to a 50-footwall at Chase Field during a Memorial Day game in Phoenix, Arizona, on May 27, 2013. (credit:Ralph Freso/Reuters)
(16 of18)
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A soldier sits in front of a grave during Memorial Day celebrations at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, on May 25, 2015. (credit:Reuters)
(17 of18)
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Ryan Buckingham of Camdenton, Missouri, touches the grave of his friend David Hortman during Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on May 25, 2015. (credit:Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
(18 of18)
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U.S. Army soldiers Rick Kolberg, left, and Jesus Gallegos embrace as they visit the graves of Raymond Jones and Peter Enos on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington on May 30, 2016. (credit:Lucas Jackson / Reuters)
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