And to be honest—it’s a hard day. His son and I—Hunter, who’s here in the crowd—I don’t know where you’re sitting, Hunter, but— all the way in the back there—his daddy came to this event with me. We were about the same age when he started.
He’d just graduated from high school, heading off to college. And you know, it’s, uh—being with all of you—what, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier. It really does.
So thank you for allowing me to grieve with you.
Some of you know—some of you knew—my son Beau. He served in the Delaware National Guard, including a year in Iraq.
Remember I got a phone call—I was in Washington—“Dad, could you, what are you doing Friday?” I said, “What do you need, honey?” He said, “I want you to pin my bars on.” I said, “Pin your bars on? You have two kids, you’re not…” “Dad, somebody’s gotta do this, Dad.”
Proudest day of his life was putting that uniform on. That’s not a joke. That’s not hyperbole. That’s real. And you know, it’s one of the proudest things I ever did—pinning that, his bars on him. And it means so much to our family that the headquarters of the Delaware National Guard has been renamed after Beau.
His legacy lives on. His children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren—like those you lost—will be remembered. They’ll remember who he was.