Memorial Day 2011

Lady's Island Intermediate School fifth grade student Joshua Desmore places an American flag at a marker at the Beaufort National Cemetery May 27, 2011 in Beaufort, South Carolina. Each year the local schools help the historic national cemetery place flags on its more than 18,000 graves.

Teachers at Lady's Island Intermediate School hand out American flags to a group of fifth grade students at the Beaufort National Cemetery May 27, 2011 in Beaufort, South Carolina.

Fifth grader Nicholas Morre carries American flags through the rows of white marble headstones at the Beaufort National Cemetery May 27, 2011 in Beaufort, S.C.

U.S. Army Col. David Astin salutes in front of the headstone of a fellow solder with whom he served in Afghanistan, in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, May 26, 2011 in Arlington, Virginia.

"Flags-In" has become an annual ceremony since the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) was offered to be an Army's official ceremonial unit in 1948. Every available soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment participates in these events.

The U.S. Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard's Silent Drill Team walks through Times Square after putting on a performance as part of Fleet Week festivities May 27, 2011 in New York City.

In celebration of the start of Fleet Week, aircraft fly past the Statue of Liberty, May 25, 2011 in New York City. Fleet week, which has been held in New York City since 1984, celebrates the U.S. Navy and Marines Corps with a week of ship visitations and military demonstrations.

Veterans advocates from the San Francisco-based veteran rights organization Swords to Plowshares stage a "flash mob," holding poppy flowers while recognizing a moment of silence inside the Westfield San Francisco Centre shopping mall, May 27, 2011 in San Francisco, California.

General Walter Sharp, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, and U.S. scouts lay flowers on the books of fallen soldiers from the 1950-53 Korean War, during a ceremony to commemorate Memorial Day at a U.S. Army base in Seoul, Korea, May 26, 2011.

Participants in the Rolling Thunder annual motorcycle rally ride through the Constitution Avenue near the National Mall during the Memorial Day weekend, in Washington, D.C., May 29, 2011.

Dave Wetiner holds a rose over the name of his friend Alfred F. Hall, at the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, Sunday, May 29, 2011. Sgt. Hall, from New Castle, Pa., died in Quang Tri, South Vietnam on January 9, 1970 at the age of 19.

An unidentified man sits in a bamboo cage, representing the kind that held prisoners of war, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen speaks during a Memorial Day event in Washington, Sunday, May 29, 2011.

A visitor looks at the monument of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on Sunday, May 29, 2011.

AP Photo/Stuart Whitaker/Palestine Herald Press

Smoke rises in the air from the firing of a Howitzer cannon - a replica of the cannon used in the Battle of Val Verde during the Civil War. Re-enactors from the John H. Reagan Camp No. 2156 Sons of Confederate Veterans fired the cannon during the Texas State Railroad's 14th Annual Memorial Day Armed Forces Event Saturday, May 28, 2011 at the Palestine, Texas depot.

A veteran uses a fan to cool himself as he attends Memorial Day ceremonies at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in suburban Taguig, south of Manila, Philippines, Sunday, May 29, 2011. The cemetery site contains the largest number of U.S. military dead of World War II.

Children walk along layers of tombs as they attend Memorial Day ceremonies at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in suburban Taguig, south of Manila, Philippines on Sunday May 29, 2011. The cemetery site contains the largest number of U.S. military dead of World War II.

Visitors kneel at Arlington West, a Memorial Day display which uses crosses and other religious symbols to represent the service people killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and is sponsored by Veterans for Peace, on the beach at Santa Monica, Calif., Sunday, May 29, 2011.

Vietnam War veteran Bob Brooks attends a Memorial Day ceremony in Davenport, Iowa, Sunday May 29, 2011.

HENDERSON, NV - MAY 29: Roman Porrino, son of television personality Angel Porrino, runs holding an American flag at a Memorial Day weekend pool party at Ravella at Lake Las Vegas May 29, 2011 in Henderson, Nevada. His second birthday was on May 28. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Ravella at Lake Las Vegas)

People wait for the start of the Memorial Day Parade, May 29, 2011 in Ansonia, Connecticut. Hundreds of towns and cities across America will celebrate Memorial Day with parades, cookouts and family gatherings.

Anthony Ortiz Rivera, 3, right, with his mother, Veronica Ortiz Rivera, of Camp LeJeune, N.C., wears a button showing his father, Marine Staff Sgt. Javier Ortiz Rivera, who was killed serving in Afghanistan in 2010, as they wait for U.S. President Barack Obama to speak at a Memorial Day service at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Monday, May 30, 2011.

President Barack Obama holds a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery May 30, 2011 in Arlington, Virginia.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Michael Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and President Barack Obama pay tribute as the National Anthem is played during the Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, May 30, 2011.

President Barack Obama talks to families of fallen soldiers near the graves in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2011.

Sherrie Swanson and Steve Meitz arrive at the National Cemetery dressed in Civil War dress during the Memorial Day celebrations in Los Angeles, Monday May 30, 2011.

Richard and Kelly Dare visit the grave site of her father, who served in the Korean War, during a Memorial Day celebration at the Riverside National Cemetery, Monday, May, 30, 2011, in Riverside, Calif.

The Patriot Battalion of Fresh Meadow's Francis Lewis High School march in formation during the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day parade Monday, May 30, 2011, in Little Neck, N.Y. The parade is known to attract servicemen and prominent politicians from the New York metropolitan area.

Sea cadet Stephan Sobolev of Castro Valley, Calif., salutes as the national anthem is played during a Memorial Day service on the USS Pampanito submarine at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Monday, May 30, 2011. The service paid tribute to those submarines lost during World War II and included a "Tolling the Boats" ceremony. During the ceremony, the names of each U.S. submarine lost during World War II, along with the fate of its crew, are read aloud as a bell is tolled for each in turn.

AP Photo/Chattanooga Times Free Press, Allison Carter

Boy Scout Gareth Miller carries a retired flag Monday, May 30, 2011, during the Troop 188th's annual American Flag retirement ceremony at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Cleveland, Tenn. People from the surrounding area brought in numerous flags that were no longer suitable for display.

Grady Rhoden, left, a member of the Military Officers Association of America, holds a flag Monday, May 30, 2011, moments before the beginning of a Memorial Day ceremony honoring members of the military at the Chattanooga National Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Emma Youngblood, 5, weeps as her brother Hunter Youngblood, 10, kisses the headstone and says goodbye at the grave of their father, Petty Officer 3rd Class Travis L. Youngblood, 26, of Surrency, Georgia, on Memorial Day in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, May 30, 2011. PO3 Youngblood was a hospital corpsman who died July 21, 2005, of wounds received from an IED during combat operations in Hit, Iraq.

A woman walks among the symbolic grave of fallen soldiers at the Arlington West Memorial on Memorial Day in Santa Monica, California on May 30, 2011.

To honor Memorial Day, a giant flag covers the Green Monster as the national anthem is played on May 30, 2011 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.

Retired Navy Master Chief Paul Morgan holds an American flag before a Memorial Day parade Monday, May 30, 2011, in the Bridesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Pearl Harbor survivor Maynard Hoffman, 93, of Bremerton, Wash., salutes during the playing of the "Star Spangled Banner" at Ivy Green Cemetery in Bremerton, during a Memorial Day service, Monday, May 30, 2011. He was a major in the Marine Corps from 1935-78.

AP Photo/Ketchikan Daily News, Hall Anderson

Lorrie Gunyah, left, and her aunt Tillie Hoff, look at the the crypt for Hoff's late husband Don Hoff Sr., a WWII Vet, Monday, May 30, 2011 at the Bayview Cemetery and Mausoleum in Ketchikan, Alaska.

AP Photo/Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, Richard Hertzler

Molly Fasnacht,7, from Schoeneck, Pa.. attends a Memorial Day service on Monday, May 30, 2011.

Vietnam War veteran Michael Gaughan is seen before a Memorial Day parade Monday, May 30, 2011, in the Bridesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia.

AP Photo/Statesman Journal, Thomas Patterson

Spc. Jorge Torres reflects on a rubbing he made of the name of a fallen comrade, at the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Afghan-Iraqi Freedom Memorial on the grounds of the Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs in Salem, Ore., on Monday, May 30, 2011 - two months after Spc. Toress returned from a tour in Afghanistan.

AP Photo/Montgomery Advertiser, Lloyd Gallman

After placing a wreath, Ricardo Randle, left, Director Dept. of Veterans Affairs Regional Office Montgomery, and Brig. Gen. Craig Olsen, Program Executive Officer for Enterprise Information Systems, Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Ala., salute as "Taps" is played during the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System, Montgomery campus, on Monday, May 30, 2011, in Montgomery, Ala.

American Legion Department Vice-Commander Larry Granish, left, along with Veterans of Foreign Wars' members John Bradburn, center, and Joe Worsley stand during the invocation at the annual Memorial Day ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda Monday, May 30, 2011, in Olympia, Wash.

AP Photo/The Key West Citizen, Rob O'Neal

Wallace Moore III, 17, is silhouetted Monday, May 30, 2011, at the USS Maine Memorial at the Key West Cemetery as he plays "Taps" in honor of his grandfather who served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theater of World War II and later in the Korean War. The service included a 21-gun salute, remarks by Capt. Lefere of NAS Key West, prayers for the fallen, and the aerial towing of a 20' x 40' American flag.

AP Photo/The Daily News-Record, Traci White

A memorial dedicated to the memory of Brian "Bucky" Anderson stands on top of a marble plaque at sunset on Sunday, May 29, 2011 in Broadway, Va., during the dedication ceremony for Anderson, who was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in June 2010.