President praises bravery of U.S. soldiers

WASHINGTON – In glimmering sunlight, a somber President Bush placed the traditional Memorial Day wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday and later declared that, “America has always been a reluctant warrior.”

Bush singled out the bravery of three soldiers, one from the Army and two Marines, who died in the Iraq conflict and had communicated with their families shortly before their deaths.

“For those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq, today is a day of last letters and fresh tears,” Bush said in a speech at the nearby Memorial Amphitheater, shortly after the wreath ceremony at the Arlington, Va., resting site for three unknown U.S. soldiers from World War I, World War II and Korea.

Bush read from a letter sent by Army Sgt. Michael Evans of Marrerro, La., who was killed in late January while on patrol in Baghdad, Iraq.

“In his own farewell letter to his family, the 22-year-old reminded those he left behind to stay strong,” Bush said, adding that Evans told his family, “I know it will be hard, but I gave my life so you could live. Not just live, but live free.”

Reading from another letter that Marine Capt. Ryan Beaupre had instructed was to be opened only in the event of his death, Bush quoted: “Realize that I died doing something that I truly love, and for a purpose greater than myself.” Beaupre, from St. Anne, Ill., was killed in the first hours of the Iraq war, Bush said.

The third cited by the president was Marine Lance Corp. Darrell Schumann of Hampton, Va., who wrote to his family in the last letter before his death, “I do wish America could see how awesome a job we’re doing.” Bush said Schumann died in a helicopter crash in Fallujah.

Acknowledging the “great costs” of the conflict, Bush said, “Two terrorist regimes are gone forever, freedom is on the march and America is more secure. … We must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives, by defeating the terrorists, advancing the cause of liberty and building a safer world.”

Bush addressed the crowd, many members of which recently lost family members, from a podium with three towering U.S. flags serving as a backdrop. He noted the ceremony also was meant to honor the missing.

“We honor them. And our nation is determined to account for all of them,” Bush said.

In introducing Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld drew parallels between the Civil War Battle of Bull Run and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States. In both cases, the Defense secretary noted, the smoke and fire from the deadly scene were visible from the White House.

The United States, Rumsfeld said, has become the target of global terrorists.

Now, he concluded, “Liberty’s survival here depends on its advance abroad.”

The Memorial Day weekend ceremonies in the nation’s capital also included the arrival Sunday of tens of thousands of veterans on motorcycles who assembled on the National Mall in the traditional “Rolling Thunder” tribute.

The veterans, many from the Vietnam era, were addressed by Rumsfeld, who told them their efforts and those of their fallen comrades would “never be forgotten.”