On Memorial Day, Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Honor Nation's Fallen

The United States will soon mark its semiquincentennial - 250 years as a nation. It's a big milestone, said President Donald J. Trump, but not one that could have been achieved without more than a million U.S. service members having given their lives to the nation since the American Revolution began in 1775.

Memorial Day is for recognizing those who sacrificed their lives to give America its independence and to sustain that independence, Trump told an audience of hundreds today at the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

"Less than six weeks from now, our nation will reach a historic milestone: 250 years of majestic American independence," he said. "It's only right that first we remember the immense sacrifice that [brought it to us]. ... Today, we are reminded that there could be no Fourth of July without America's armed forces, and there could be no Independence Day without Memorial Day. We owe our liberty, our self-government, the glories of our history, and our very nation itself to the generations who paid for it with everything they had - the ultimate sacrifice."

From the American Revolution through the War of 1812, the Mexican American War, the Civil War, two World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, recent conflicts in the Middle East and dozens of other combat actions in between, more than a million service members have died in American conflicts.

Memorial Day is to remember them.

Those service members, Trump said, have not just secured for the United States the freedom it has today, they have advanced freedom in other nations as well.

"In 250 years, America's heroes have saved more lives, freed more captives, accomplished more good and spread more hope than any other people, at any time in the history of the world," he said. "Billions and billions of people have been delivered from poverty, tyranny and oppression, because of the sacrifices we honor this day."

Across the globe, he said, there are cemeteries filled with America's fallen - men and women who died defending America's interests for a quarter of a millennia and who, in the process of doing so, helped bring freedom to other nations as well.

"This whole planet is adorned with memorials to America's fallen and to America's greatness, to their courage, carved in marble and engraved in the hearts of all of mankind," he said.

For 250 years, the president said, America's servicemen and women have defended the United States' championing of a higher moral cause: freedom for all.

"They've not just made the ultimate sacrifice, they've offered the ultimate proof that we Americans do indeed love liberty," he said. "We do cherish the self-government given to us by our forefathers. We do believe with all our souls in the mission that God has given to America, and we do intend with all our strength and heart to hold high the torch our heroes handed to us, and we will never ever let it fall."

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reminded those at the amphitheater that many of the white grave markers in the cemetery are more than stones. Each represents a story, he said. And for some, that story is one that ended with a soldier leaving the United States, thinking about their families - and then never returning home.

"Each grave marker is a story. The young American on the battlefield, away from home - he stayed in contact with loved ones by writing letters," he said. "In World War II, they called it Victory Mail. GIs wrote of coming home and watching sunsets again, of having a cigarette and a beer with their buddies, going to football games and on dates, loving their wives [and] seeing their children grow tall and great. Different wars, still the same letters today."

Whether it was the Revolutionary War, the Vietnam War, or the recent wars in the Middle East - on land or on the sea - service members dream of coming home to their wives, or husbands, girlfriends, or boyfriends, parents and children. But Memorial Day isn't for those who get to see their loved ones again and have dinner at home again. It's for those who died far away from home.

"Those we remember today will never get those sunsets; they'll never get those dates; they'll never get to raise their children," Hegseth said. "Instead, they were delivered from the battlefields into the arms of a loving Lord and savior. Their families and their buddies greeting them [at] home with a folded triangle of stars and the piercing sound of a bugle playing Taps."

The secretary said America is a great nation, one paid for with blood. Memorial Day is for Americans to remember how many died, and where, so that at home, Americans can have freedom and safety.

"We must remember that our republic was forged and purchased with blood, American blood," he said. "So, take pause today and consider the transformation these warriors went through for our nation. Share it with your kids and your grandkids; we must. Ordinary men, when called, can become our heroes. They fought not because they hate what's in front of them, but because they love what's behind them. And so may the ones we remember today live on in every flag that flies. May they live on in every voice of a schoolchild who says the Pledge of Allegiance. May they live in our prayers to Almighty God."