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With simply 4 days remaining in his time period because the commander-in-chief of America’s army, President Joe Biden urged members of the six armed companies branches to stay true to their pledge to uphold the U.S. Structure as he addressed them for the ultimate time.
“Our commitment to honor, to integrity, to unity, to protecting and defending not a person or a party or a place, but an idea,” Biden stated on Thursday.
Biden, who addressed an assemblage of service members and dignitaries together with Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin, Vice President Kamala Harris, their spouses and First Girl Jill Biden at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Corridor in Arlington, Virginia, used the looks to recount his administration’s accomplishments that benefited American forces and veterans. They included enacting the PACT Act to extend entry to medical look after veterans uncovered to poisonous substances, in addition to to fight the rash of suicides that has plagued the veteran group for years.
“We brought veterans homelessness to record lows, made historic changes to the military justice system, which has reduced the rates of sexual assault for the first time in nearly a decade, rescinded the ban on transgender service. We took landmark steps to create more economic opportunities for military spouses. We expanded opportunities for women in combat roles,” he stated.
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President Joe Biden speaks throughout a Division of Protection Commander-in-Chief farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Corridor (AP)
He additionally famous that he’d appointed the first-ever feminine army officer to guide one of many nation’s armed companies, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti earlier than urging the viewers to “clap for that” as a result of “she deserves it.”
As he spoke whereas sporting a Protection Division Distinguished Public Service Medal that he’d been awarded by Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin simply moments earlier, Biden praised the army — “the finest fighting force in the history of the world” — for having carried out “everything” that had been requested of them throughout his time period “with honor, commitment, grit and guts.”
However the outgoing commander-in-chief added that he had another request for them, not one made because the sitting president, however as somebody who “spent 50 years of his life serving his country in a different way” by his lengthy service within the U.S. Senate, as Vice President, and as president.
“Remember your oath,” he stated.
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Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin, from left, presents a plaque to President Joe Biden for the medal for Distinguished Public Service as First Girl Jill Biden and Charlene Austin watch throughout a Division of Protection Commander-in-Chief farewell ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Corridor (AP)
Quoting his late son, Delaware Lawyer Common and U.S. Military Main Beau Biden, the president referred to as the oath service members take to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” the troops’ “home base.”
“That’s a set of principles, of values that give you light and darkness, that guide you … you are the smartest, most well trained force on earth. That’s all critical. But that alone is not what makes us strong — it’s our values,” he stated.
Persevering with, Biden burdened that what makes America “unique in the world” is that it’s the one nation primarily based on “an idea … that we’re all created equal.”
“That’s the idea that generations of service members have fought for, idea you have sworn an oath to defend as a nation. We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never, ever, ever walked away from it. My country is counting on you to ensure that that will always be true,” he stated.
Biden’s closing tackle to America’s combating forces got here simply days after the Senate held a contentious affirmation listening to for Pete Hegseth, the previous Fox Information host who Biden’s successor, President-elect Donald Trump, has tapped to function the following protection secretary.
His exhortation for American troops to recollect the oath they take to the structure seemed to be a plea for them to not observe any unlawful orders that come from Hegseth or Trump, who throughout his first time period repeatedly pushed to deploy active-duty troops to place down protests in opposition to his administration.
