President Donald Trump honored America’s veterans on Wednesday in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Trump, accompanied by Vice President JD Vance, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, and U.S. Major General Antoinette Gant, saluted as the National Anthem played before laying the wreath.
After laying the wreath, they saluted again as Taps echoed throughout the cemetery.
Trump, Vance, and Collins delivered remarks in the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater following the ceremony.
“On Veterans Day, we reaffirm our undying gratitude to every patriot who has answered the call of duty,” Trump said. “We pay tribute to all of those who have won the wars and worn the uniform, who faced the enemy, who have beaten the enemy at every turn, who have borne the burdens of fate and destiny to stand as our protection in battle.”
Trump recognized veterans from several wars, including a 103-year-old World War II veteran, Cpl. Jack Myers, and a Vietnam veteran, U.S. Army Col. Douglas Moore, both of whom were in attendance.
Trump also thanked those working on the United States’ campaign against Iran.
Vance spoke before the president and referenced President Abraham Lincoln’s Lyceum Address a few decades before Lincoln became the 16th president. In that speech, Lincoln likened Revolutionary War veterans to “a forest of giant oaks.”
Vance said that veterans are America’s “most important monuments.”
“We are, of course, proud in this amazing city, in this beautiful capital of ours, we’re proud of all these incredible monuments, but we know that the most important monuments to our generations who served in the military, our most important monuments are you,” he said.
“It is the people who had the courage, and the willpower, and the fight to put on the uniform of the United States of America and say, ‘Don’t send my neighbor, send me.’ That is the greatest monument to America. It’s you all. It’s the fact that you served,” he added.
During his remarks, Collins stressed that the veterans are the reason America exists, and her people enjoy their freedoms.
“What is the same throughout history is that every time that this country needed someone, someone stood up. That someone is a veteran. That someone has a face and a name. That someone is the reason you are here today,” Collins said.
“It is the reason you can assemble peacefully. It is the reason you can vote. It is the reason that you have freedom of press and freedom of speech. It is the reason that you have the life that you live,” the secretary added.
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