‘We’re Free As a result of They Have been Courageous’

Memorial Day 2021, a day honoring the sacrifices of the nation’s veterans, was particularly poignant a year after many memorial ceremonies – and many family outings and barbecues – were curtailed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The parades, which were canceled in 2020, took place again in 2021. The services held online last year were continued in person this year. The holiday traffic returned, as did the beach trips – at least in parts of the country that were not cursed with cold rainy weather.

President Biden honored the fallen at Arlington National Cemetery and delivered an emotional speech under blue, sunlit skies just one day after the five-year anniversary of the death of his son Beau, who served in Iraq. “It can be painful to remember, but the pain is how we feel and how we heal,” Biden said after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. He urged the Americans to keep the fallen military in mind. “We are free because they were brave,” he said.

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

A member of the military stands near the Tomb of the Unknown before a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Members of the military are reflected in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Beach goers on South Beach in Miami Beach, Florida.

Veterans during a Memorial Day parade in Myrtle Beach, SC

A family in search of horseshoe crabs on Orchard Beach in the Bronx.

Light a fire to keep warm on Orchard Beach and longtime Bronx residents playing dominoes.

Hughes Van Ellis, a veteran who survived the Tulsa Race massacre, is awarded a medal on the event’s 100th anniversary.

In Barnstable, Massachusetts, a police honor guard remembered the town’s war dead.

The Oakmont-Verona Memorial Day Parade in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

Kyle Watts, an Ohio vacationer, uses a metal detector in Myrtle Beach.

Crowds enjoy the waves on Myrtle Beach.