00:00Raksa, President Trump, Vice President Vance, Chairman Cain, Gold Star families,
00:21ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today to remember our fallen warriors.
00:25We gather here to honor our very best, gone in their youth.
00:32To properly do so, we understand who they are and what they fought for.
00:38It is our simple duty to them.
00:41You know, throughout time, civilizations have honored the powerful, the well-connected, and the well-born.
00:47Emperors and kings have built magnificent shrines to their own royal greatness.
00:52Yet in America, with our great experiment in self-government, it is fitting that the most honored and closely guarded tomb in the land is that of an anonymous soldier of an unknown rank.
01:07When the first unknown soldier was selected for burial in 1921, he laid in state at the Capitol Rotunda.
01:16Throngs of Americans paid their respects.
01:20When the tomb was dedicated on November 11th, Veterans Day, the unknown received the Medal of Honor.
01:27It's a uniquely American tradition that we honor anonymous sacrifice above worldly greatness.
01:36While we don't know the unknown's identity, race, or creed, we know his story.
01:42It's the story of every soldier, every warrior.
01:46It's a simple story.
01:49As old as war.
01:52A young man with hopes and dreams and loves who's called by his country leaves behind his hometown, his parents, his siblings, his sweetheart.
02:01All that he knows to go fight a war that he may or may not understand.
02:10He's called to go through hell and back.
02:12To sleep in a trench, to eat out of a tin cup or on the hood of a Humvee.
02:18To pray as bullets and bombs thunder around him.
02:21To fear for the bullet or the mortar or the IED or the RPG with his name on it.
02:32He does it willingly and stoically because he loves his country, his brothers in arms and his family.
02:40This is the story of the unknown.
02:43The story of the fallen soldier who we have gathered today to honor.
02:47It is the story of the American warrior.
02:51He answered the call, fought, and died for this republic.
02:56The ultimate sacrifice of a free people.
02:59You see, the American soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him.
03:05But because he loves what's behind him.
03:09We honor his selfish sacrifice, his courage, his duty, and his love.
03:15As Jesus taught his disciples, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
03:25This love is a gift given freely.
03:28And yet this gift comes with responsibility to those living.
03:32We owe a duty to those who have fallen in war.
03:34They have paid a debt we can never repay.
03:37And for that, we owe gratitude and remembrance.
03:42We owe at least this, to remember their sacrifice and honor their memory year after year.
03:51Salute after salute.
03:52Ceremony after ceremony.
03:54Parade after parade.
03:56Prayer after prayer.
03:57That by our remembrance, we keep lit the eternal flame of their heroic deeds in defense of our nation.
04:06And we owe eternal vigilance.
04:10Eternal vigilance.
04:11The price of freedom.
04:13These men died for something.
04:14The hope of a free, secure, and peaceful republic.
04:18That is our inheritance.
04:19And we must steward it and hand it down to our kids and our grandkids.
04:25We must live worthy of it.
04:30These men dreamt of a future in which their children would not fear of attack.
04:35No enemy could threaten their peace.
04:37No war could require them to take up arms.
04:40The duty we owe these men is peace.
04:43Which only can be achieved through strength.
04:47And because we strive for peace, we must prepare for war.
04:52That's the job of the chairman and I and so many others at the Defense Department.
04:57Each and every day, we will never, on behalf of those who've given so much, we will never be complacent.
05:06We owe these men nothing less.
05:10Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
05:15So on this Memorial Day, in honor of the unknown soldiers, and the known, let us rededicate ourselves to God and country.
05:26To our great republic 249 years on, we stand on the shoulders of great men.
05:33And on the shoulders of those great men in those graves.
05:37And may we live worthy of it.
05:42God bless our warriors and may God bless our fallen.
