"Where did we find such men?"

"Once each May, amid the quiet hills and rolling lanes and breeze-brushed trees of Arlington National Cemetery, far above the majestic Potomac and the monuments and memorials of our Nation’s Capital just beyond, the graves of America’s military dead are decorated with the beautiful flag that in life these brave souls followed and loved. This scene is repeated across our land and around the world, wherever our defenders rest. Let us hold it our sacred duty and our inestimable privilege on this day to decorate these graves ourselves—with a fervent prayer and a pledge of true allegiance to the cause of liberty, peace, and country for which America’s own have ever served and sacrificed ...

"Our pledge and our prayer this day are those of free men and free women who know that all we hold dear must constantly be built up, fostered, revered and guarded vigilantly from those in every age who seek its destruction. We know, as have our Nation’s defenders down through the years, that there can never be peace without its essential elements of liberty, justice and independence. Those true and only building blocks of peace were the lone and lasting cause and hope and prayer that lighted the way of those whom we honor and remember this Memorial Day. To keep faith with our hallowed dead, let us be sure, and very sure, today and every day of our lives, that we keep their cause, their hope, their prayer, forever our country’s own."

- Ronald W. Reagan

Arlington
As performed by Trace Adkins

I never thought that this is where I'd settle down.
I thought I'd die an old man back in my hometown.
They gave me this plot of land,
  Me and some other men,
    For a job well done.

There's a big white house, sits on a hill, just up the road.
The man inside, he cried the day they brought me home.
They folded up a flag,
  And told my mom and dad,
    "We're proud of your son."

And I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property.
I'm on sacred ground and I'm in the best of company.
I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done.
I can rest in peace. I'm one of the chosen ones.
I made it to Arlington.

I remember daddy brought me here when I was eight.
We searched all day to find out where my granddad lay.
When we finally found that cross,
  He said, "Son, this is what it costs
    To keep us free."

Now, here I am, a thousand stones away from him.
He recognized me on the first day I came in.
And it gave me a chill,
  When he clicked his heels,
    And saluted me.

And, I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property.
I'm on sacred ground, and I'm in the best of company.
And I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done.
I can rest in peace. I'm one of the chosen ones.
I made it to Arlington.

And every time I hear twenty-one guns
  I know they brought another hero home to us.

We're thankful for those thankful for the things we've done
We can rest in peace, 'cause we are the chosen ones.
We made it to Arlington.

Yeah, dust to dust.
Don't cry for us.
We made it to Arlington.