His Excellencies, the many VIP guest, so many of my friends and colleagues. It is an honor to be here. But I pose a question for you. The question I posed is, why are we here? Why are we here now? Why are we here on this day? Why are we here at this cemetery?
If you think about the question for a moment you will realize that the answer is actually a little different than you’re probably imagining. The reason that we are here is because we can.
Why can we be here? Why can we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice? Why can we be here to honor these men who put everything on the line? Why can we be here to honor these men and one woman who did in fact give it all? Why is it we can be here to thank them all for the sacrifices they make every day? And it is because there were those who are willing to stand up for those in the name of freedom, independence, democracy, the ability to have free spirit to be whoever we wanted to be.
They were willing to do everything so that we could have that right. We all chose to come here this day. At this moment to say thank you.
Thank you for their service. Thank you to your service. Thank you to the service of all of the fine servicemen that are in the audience today.
And thank you to the United States of America. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, all of the wonderful allies that stood with us in the face of oppression and tyranny, to say, “No. We will never give in because what we believe in is the very ideal that sets us free.” Thank you.