Bob McCarty Writes

Today, I visited a cemetery in St. Peters, Mo., where nearly 100 people, mostly veterans and their spouses, were preparing the hallowed ground for ceremonies that will take place there on Memorial Day 2010.

Four of them told me about their service and about what it meant to them to be able to honor fallen soldiers on Memorial Day:

• Wayne Wallace served in the Army after being drafted in 1966, right in the heat of the Vietnam War, and sent to serve in Germany;

• Robert Reed served 20 years in the Marine Corps, including two tours in Vietnam, before retiring in 1984;

• Robert Brieg served in the Korean War from 1952-54, in places like Puson and Seoul; and

• Clara “Jean” Scott joined the Nurse Cadet Corps right out of high school, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (“WAVES”) in 1944.

Though I didn’t include their comments in the video above, each of the veterans with whom I spoke expressed contempt and disgust over President Barack Obama’s decision to skip ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery and, instead, take a vacation to Chicago.

If, like them, you think President Obama should skip his family vacation in Chicago to fulfill his role as commander-in-chief and presiding officer at Arlington, let him know about it by calling the White House at 202-456-1111.

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