Vice president honors fallen troops; Obama talk rained out

ELWOOD, Ill. -- Vice President Joe Biden hailed America's fighting men and women Monday as the "spine of this nation," while President Barack Obama's tribute in Illinois got washed out by a severe thunderstorm and high winds.

The president later delivered the speech Monday evening after he landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

Biden made the more traditional appearance at Arlington National Cemetery on Obama's behalf, saying the country has "a sacred obligation" to make sure its servicemen and women are the best-equipped and best-supported troops in the world.

"As a nation, we pause to remember them," Biden said. "They gave their lives fulfilling their oath to this nation and to us."

Obama had readied a similar message of gratitude for his appearance at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Illinois, and had taken the podium to give the address when the skies opened up with a late-spring downpour -- thunder, lightning and high winds.

Under the cover of a large umbrella, he told thousands gathered before him that "a little bit of rain doesn't hurt anybody, but we don't want anybody being struck by lightning." He asked people to return to their cars for their safety, and he retreated briefly to an administration building on the cemetery's grounds. A few minutes later Obama boarded a pair of buses to greet military families that came for the event.

After leaving the cemetery, Obama met privately with families of veterans and service members living at the Fisher House in Hines, Ill. It serves as a home away from home for family members whose loved ones are getting treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Hines, which is about 12 miles west of downtown Chicago.

At Andrews Air Force Base, Obama said the meaning of Memorial Day is found in the story of ordinary Americans who become extraordinary for one simple reason: love of country. He said the nation owes them its security, prosperity and freedoms, and that it falls to each citizen to preserve those for future generations.

At Arlington, Biden carried out the traditional wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns under sunny skies.

The vice president, accompanied by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the country's service members are "the heart and soul and I would say spine of this nation." He said taking part in the annual ceremony was "the greatest honor of my public life."

Obama's decision to appear in Illinois, rather than at the national burial grounds at Arlington, had been controversial, and some veterans groups criticized him for it, although he was not the first president to bypass the annual outing.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said Arlington is the focal point of the nation's and military's attention on Memorial Day.

"When he's not here, it doesn't look like he's on the same page," Rieckhoff said.

Rieckhoff said U.S. servicemen and women need Obama to use the bully pulpit to remind people that the holiday is not about going to the beach or barbecuing. "We think that he has an obligation to really bridge the divide between the military and the rest of the population."

"We appreciate that the vice president is going to be here, but it's not the same," Rieckhoff said.

Jay Agg, a spokesman for the veterans group AMVETS, said the annual ceremony at Arlington is "the ideal place for the president to observe Memorial Day. However, his choice to honor our fallen at another national cemetery as other presidents have done is entirely appropriate."

In an e-mail, Agg accused some people of using the day "as an opportunity to score cheap political points on the backs of our veterans and in doing so dishonor them and distract from the true meaning and purpose of Memorial Day."