Images: Memorial Day across the country
Bob Petersen places flags along a fence for the Memorial Day weekend, at his home in the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold, N.J., Sunday, May 25, 2014.
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Robert Becker sounds 'Taps' during a Memorial Day ceremony at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Va. Monday, May 26, 2014.
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President Barack Obama speaks at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 26, 2014. President Obama is leading the nation in remembering its war heroes, the fallen and those still defending the flag, in a Memorial Day tribute.
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Larry Caprari, a veteran of the Vietnam War, holds poppies to be used to honor those who served in the military and died in service at a Memorial Day Ceremony at the Pittsfield, Mass., Cemetery, Monday May 26, 2014. As the names of those being remembered were read, a poppy was put in an urn to honor them.
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President Barack Obama lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 26, 2014. President Obama is leading the nation in remembering its war heroes, the fallen and those still defending the flag, in a Memorial Day tribute.
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Pvt. John Schena, with the 2nd Battalion 1st Brigade of the Georgia State Defense Force, salutes after placing a rose at a Pearl Harbor Memorial at Marietta National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2014, in Marietta, Ga.
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A soldier walks past the grave of Iraq War veteran U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffery Blanton on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2014, at Marietta National Cemetery in Marietta, Ga. Blanton was killed Dec. 2 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq, two days after being released from a hospital where he was treated for an earlier gunshot wound.
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A rose sits on a tombstone of a civil war soldier at Marietta National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2014, in Marietta, Ga.
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Navy veteran Mike Bukowski, of Virginia Beach, Va., hands out small U.S. flags at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., for Memorial Day Monday, May 26, 2014.
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Mariana Cardenaz, 5, of San Diego, Calif., looks at a small U.S. flag while attending a Memorial Day event at Arlington National Cemetery Monday, May 26, 2014. Her father, Army Staff Sgt. Michael Cardenaz was killed serving in Afghanistan in 2010.
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A crowd listens as President Barack Obama speaks during a Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 26, 2014. President Barack Obama led the nation in commemorating Memorial Day, declaring the United States has reached "a pivotal moment" in Afghanistan with the end of war approaching.
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Sgt. Brandon Uhrich, of the U.S. Marine Corps, participates with the Tri-Rivers Detachtment of the Marine Corps League Monday, May 26, 2014, in a Memorial Day ceremony at Roselawn Memorial Park in Salina, Kan. Uhrich, of Grand Forks, North Dakota, is a Marine Corps recruiter stationed in Salina.
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Norma and Norman Walker present a wreath for American Legion Auxiliary Unit 71 and American Legion Post 71 during the Memorial Day service presented for the City of North Augusta by American Legion Post 71 in North Augusta, S.C., on Monday, May 26, 2014.
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Former Army Ranger veteran John Tuzzolino, president of the Arizona Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America, salutes during the national anthem during a Memorial Day ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona on Monday, May 26, 2014, in Phoenix.
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An Iraq War veteran waves as planes fly over during a Memorial Day ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, Monday, May 26, 2014, in Phoenix.
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A visitor to the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona pauses at a grave on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2014, in Phoenix.
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Raymonde Murphy walks past the flag-adorned graves after visiting the grave of her husband, William Murphy, a World War II veteran, at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2014, in Phoenix.
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Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division fire three volleys Monday, May 26, 2014, during a Memorial Day ceremony at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Ga.
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Vietnam veteran John Thomas Sansore of Bloomingdale, Ga., shares a beer with his friend Henry Allen Wheeler following the Memorial Day Ceremony in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Ga., Monday, May 26, 2014.
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Emilia Thorsson, 2, waves an American flag as she sits on top of her father Thor's shoulders during the Glacier Highlands Memorial Day parade in the Glacier Highlands neighborhood in Ann Arbor, Mich., Monday, May 26, 2014.
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U.S. Army Col. Keith Sousa is honored to stand guard over the remains of five Michigan soldiers, that were given tribute, at the Dearborn Memorial Day Parade in Dearborn, Mich., on Saturday, May 26, 2014.
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A woman touches the name of Capt. Shawn Walker on the Woodring Wall of Honor during Memorial Day ceremonies, Monday, May 26, 2014, in Enid, Okla.
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A veteran stares at the Vietnam Memorial Wall before the Woodring Wall of Honor Memorial Day ceremonies, Monday, May 26, 2014, in Enid, Okla.
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Elisabeth Blaakman, hugs John Foy of Greece, N.Y., during the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge Memorial Day Ceremony at Ontario Beach in Rochester, N.Y., Monday, May 26, 2014. Blaakman was a child in Holland during WW II and thanked all the veterans that were there for liberating her country during the ceremony. Foy was an infantry machine-gunner in George Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge.
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Victoria L. Coman-Jackson visits her husband's Dennis Wayne Jackson's grave after the annual Memorial Day Ceremony at the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo, Ala., Monday, May 26, 2014.
Associated Press
While many people celebrate and enjoy Memorial Day and the parade as a happy event it's always important to remember that for some, like the family of U.S. Marine Cpl. Chris Belchik, the meaning of the day is more somber. Belchik made the ultimate sacrifice during the War in Iraq and was remembered Monday, May 26, 2014, during the 147th annual Alton Memorial Day Parade in Alton, Ill.
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Members of the Christian music group called Encounter walk their large flag through the 147th annual Alton, Ill., Memorial Day Parade Monday, May 26, 2014. The Alton parade is believed to be the longest running consecutive Memorial Day Parade in the nation.
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A soldier walks past the grave of Iraq War veteran U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffery Blanton on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2014, at Marietta National Cemetery in Marietta, Ga. Blanton was killed Dec. 2 by enemy action in Anbar province, Iraq, two days after being released from a hospital where he was treated for an earlier gunshot wound.
Associated Press
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