Obama to pay respects to nation’s war dead during visit to Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery
By APMonday, May 31, 2010
Obama to honor war dead on Memorial Day
CHICAGO — President Barack Obama is paying his respects to America’s war dead.
The president is scheduled to lay a wreath and deliver remarks Monday at a Memorial Day observance at the Abraham Lincoln Cemetery in Elwood, Ill., south of Chicago.
Presidents traditionally participate in an annual Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, as Obama did last year, his first as president.
Some veterans groups have criticized Obama for not appearing at the nation’s most hallowed burial ground this Memorial Day. Vice President Joe Biden will help lay the wreath at Arlington instead.
Obama spoke at the Lincoln cemetery in 2005. He and his family spent the holiday weekend at their home in Chicago.
