Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth delivers Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery.
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00:00Roxxon, President Trump, Vice President Vance, Chairman Cain, Gold Star families,
00:24Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us today to remember our fallen warriors.
00:31We gather here to honor our very best, gone in their youth.
00:37To properly do so, we understand who they are and what they fought for.
00:43It is our simple duty to them.
00:45You know, throughout time, civilizations have honored the powerful, the well-connected,
00:51and the well-born.
00:52Emperor's and kings have built magnificent shrines to their own royal greatness.
00:58Yet in America, with our great experiment in self-government, it is fitting that the most
01:04honored and closely guarded tomb in the land is that of an anonymous soldier of an unknown
01:12rank.
01:14When the first unknown soldier was selected for burial in 1921, he laid in state at the Capitol
01:20Rotunda, throngs of Americans paid their respects.
01:25When the tomb was dedicated on November 11, Veterans Day, the unknown received the Medal of Honor.
01:33It is a uniquely American tradition that we honor anonymous sacrifice above worldly greatness.
01:40While we don't know the unknown's identity, race, or creed, we know his story.
01:46It's the story of every soldier, every warrior.
01:53It is a wonderful story, as old as war.
01:57A young man with hopes and dreams and loves, who's called by his country, leaves behind his
02:02hometown, his parents, his siblings, his sweetheart, all that he knows to go fight a war that he
02:11may or may not understand.
02:15He's called to go through hell and back, to sleep in a trench, to eat out of a tin cup or
02:20on the hood of a Humvee, to pray as bullets and bombs thunder around him.
02:27To fear for the bullet or the mortar or the IED or the RPG with his name on it.
02:37He does it willingly and stoically, because he loves his country, his brothers in arms
02:44and his family.
02:45This is the story of the unknown.
02:48The story of the fallen soldier who we have gathered today to honor.
02:52It is the story of the American warrior.
02:56He answered the call, fought and died for this republic.
03:01The ultimate sacrifice of a free people.
03:04You see, the American soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him, but because
03:10he loves what's behind him.
03:14We honor his self for sacrifice, his courage, his duty, and his love.
03:21As Jesus taught his disciples, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
03:27life for his friends.
03:30This love is a gift given freely.
03:32And yet this gift comes with responsibility to those living.
03:37We owe a duty to those who have fallen in war.
03:39They have paid a debt we can never repay.
03:42And for that, we owe gratitude and remembrance.
03:47We owe at least this, to remember their sacrifice and honor their memory year after year.
03:56Salute after salute, ceremony after ceremony, parade after parade, prayer after prayer.
04:02That by our remembrance, we keep lit the eternal flame of their heroic deeds in defense of our
04:09nation.
04:11And we owe eternal vigilance.
04:15Eternal vigilance.
04:16The price of freedom.
04:18These men died for something.
04:19The hope of a free, secure, and peaceful republic.
04:23That is our inheritance, and we must steward it and hand it down to our kids and our grandkids.
04:31We must live worthy of it.
04:36These men dreamt of a future in which their children would not fear of attack.
04:39No enemy could threaten their peace.
04:41No war could require them to take up arms.
04:45The duty we owe these men is peace, which only can be achieved through strength.
04:52And because we strive for peace, we must prepare for war.
04:58That's the job of the chairman and I and so many others at the Defense Department each
05:02and every day.
05:04We will never, on behalf of those who have given so much, we will never be complacent.
05:11We owe these men nothing less.
05:15Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
05:20So on this Memorial Day, in honor of the unknown soldiers, and the known, let us rededicate
05:27ourselves to God and country.
05:32To our great republic 249 years on, we stand on the shoulders of great men.
05:39And on the shoulders of those great men in those graves.
05:42And may we live worthy of it.
05:48God bless our warriors and may God bless our fallen.
05:51And amen.
05:56Ladies and gentlemen, the United States Marine Band.