Americans honored veterans around the country Sunday in celebration of Veterans Day.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to mourners gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. It is the 25th anniversary of the memorial wall.
Vice President Dick Cheney was at Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to war veterans.
In a 10-minute speech, Cheney said soldiers from World War I to "the current fight against terrorism" have served their country valiantly and "kept us free at the land we call home."
"Free to live as we see fit, free to work, worship, speak our minds, to choose our own leaders," the vice president said. "May the rest of us never take them for granted."
President Bush has spent four of the past six Veterans Days at Arlington National Cemetery. He spent this Veterans Day — his fifth since the invasion of Iraq — in Texas, at a ceremony for four Texans who died in Iraq.
The White House had said Bush was going to also use his Veterans Day speech to scold Congress for not sending him a veterans spending bill. But the president finished without any reference to the bill or Congress.
"In their sorrow, these families need to know — and families all across our nation of the fallen — need to know that your loved ones served a cause that is good and just and noble," Bush said. "And as their commander in chief, I make you this promise: Their sacrifice will not be in vain."
From the Associated Press and NPR reports
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