President Joe Biden invoked the memory of his late son Beau Biden Wednesday while declaring the Camp Hale Continental Divide a national monument but said the former Delaware attorney general and military reservist “lost his life in Iraq.”
Prior to his death, Biden’s eldest son served as a reservist in the Delaware Army National Guard and was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq. Beau died in 2015 following a battle with aggressive brain cancer believed to have been caused by exposure to toxic burn pits while serving overseas.
BIDEN GETS EMOTIONAL DISCUSSING HIS LATE SON BEAU
Biden, speaking in Colorado, highlighted the role that Camp Hale played in training the famed 10th Mountain Division ahead of World War II.
“American soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division scaled that 1800-foot cliff, at night, caught the Germans by surprise, captured key positions, and broke through the Germans’ defensive line at a pivotal point in the war,” the president stated before mentioning Beau. “Just imagine — I mean it sincerely — I say this as a father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the conspicuous service medal, and lost his life in Iraq. Imagine the courage, the daring, and the genuine sacrifice — genuine sacrifice they all made.”
Dating back to 2016, Biden has frequently tied Beau’s death to his service in Iraq and burn pit exposure, including multiple times this year, the White House noted to the Washington Examiner Thursday morning. The president has also said that Beau’s cancer and death were key factors driving his support for the PACT Act, a veterans-focused healthcare bill he signed into law in August.
“A lot of people, like [Beau], had their hooch just probably 300, 500 yards from those pits. You could smell it. You could inhale it. Well, guess what? These poisonous fumes just came — people came home with headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer,” the president said during an event at the White House on Sept. 5, 2022.
“I signed the PACT law into act, the most significant law helping veterans and their families deal with toxic exposure to those burn pits, which are the size of a football field and 8, 9, 10 feet deep,” he added nine days later. “A lot of those folks came home with headaches and sickness, and it turns out they have cancer. Many died, more than any other war, from cancer.”
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You can watch Biden’s speech in full below.
