Arlington National Cemetery is a powerfull living memorial.
Yesterday, President Obama made an extraordinary pilgrimage -- he made an unannounced visit, walking the hallowed grounds, randomly meeting with gold star mothers, and consoling surviving comrades.
I thought that was a very moving, sad, profound moment.
I am so glad we have that man in the White House. Even though I may have whatever disagreements I may have or I wish things were moving faster or whatever, to see that there today, to show that kind of concern that we never saw in the last eight years, thousands of our young boys and girls gone, dead, returning home, no pictures, no pictures allowed.
And then for him to stand there today proudly as the commander in chief, and to be there for them and for their families, I know this is weighing on him. And I'm going to trust in all my heart that he's going to make the right decision, that he doesn't want this to be called "Obama's war." This cannot be his Vietnam. I don't believe he's going to let that happen.
The day started off with the traditional Veteran's day ceremony. The President, along side General Eric Shinseki, gave a tear jerking address honoring the fallen.
Clearly affected by the moment, the President canceled his schedule and walked to the plots housing the men and women lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
► At the grave of Medal of Honor recipient Ross McGinnis, 19, an Army private who threw himself on a grenade in Iraq to save four buddies.
► He first encounter was with a woman who had grimly sat in a folding chair for hours next to a headstone she'd arranged flowers around - suddenly broadened into a smile as she stood to embrace Obama and thank him for paying his respects.
She was so overcome with emotion that a soldier from the Army's Old Guard had to console her afterward.
The following is a first hand account of an off duty reporter who unexpectedly met the President.
Obama noticed a tall, bearded figure. He probably didn't see the mud-caked combat boots I trudged around Afghanistan in a few years ago.
"What's your name?" a somber President asked as he extended his hand.
"James Meek, sir," I replied, struggling to pull off my wool glove and pull my hood back from my head. "I'm here visiting a friend, Pfc. David H. Sharrett II, who was killed in Iraq last year."
He asked how I knew Dave. I explained that his father, also named David, was my high school English teacher in nearby McLean, Va. My classmates and I knew Dave as a little boy playing at our feet.
"He became a star football player and was one of the toughest soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division," I told Obama.
"Well, we appreciate his service very much," Obama told me.
I then told him I'm a reporter for the Daily News - but was just there to visit friends.
"Well, James," he said, looking me in the eye, "just because you're a journalist doesn't mean you can't honor your friends here."
"Sorry for any inconvenience," a terribly polite Secret Service agent whispered in my ear.
As the Obamas ended their pilgrimage through Arlington's hallowed ground, inconvenience was hardly what I felt standing there as the rain pelted my coat.
I'm sure the cynics will assume this was just another Obama photo-op.
If they'd been standing in my boots looking him in the eye, they would have surely choked on their bile.
His presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command.
My moving graveside encounter with the President
Ted Kennedy’s Final Resting Place
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► Yesterday, in the White House Situation Room, informing his national security staff he has rejected all of their proposals on Afghanistan.