During a public dedication, President Joe Biden invoked the memory of his late son Beau Biden while declaring the Camp Hale Continental Divide a national monument.
But Biden made a claim that left many observers baffled. He said that his son, a former Delaware attorney general and a Major in the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National Guard “lost his life in Iraq.”
Biden, speaking at an event in Colorado, described the role that Camp Hale played in training the legendary 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.
“I taught my boys to ski here. I taught my family to ski here… For us easterners, we talk about that at dinner. No, I’m serious. All those memories that you all understandably take for granted, they’re a big deal where I come from,” Biden said according to The Gateway Pundit.
He even added that he allegedly climbed the Grand Canyon, “To stand there on the edge of a cliff in the Rio Grande to, you know, looking at one thing and it’s just, there’s not many cliffs but then head up to the Grand Canyon… I’ve climbed it from the river up and I’ve looked at it from the top down,” Biden said.
“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.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Before his death, Biden’s eldest son served was awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq. Beau died in 2015 at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland following a battle with aggressive brain cancer believed by his father to have been caused by exposure to toxic burn pits while serving overseas.
According to Fox News, Biden had said in a 2019 speech expressed this belief that Beau’s cancer arose from his service in Iraq. He said, “In my view, I can’t prove it yet, he came back with stage four glioblastoma. Eighteen months he lived, knowing he was going to die.”
Whether deliberately erroneous or not, the implication of stating a serviceman died in a foreign country is that they were Killed-In-Action, and Biden in common form fails to make any nuanced distinction which has led to heavy criticism from veterans and Gold-star families alike.
Many among both groups will tell you, that there is a great difference between dying in a foreign nation, and dying years after your service due to an illness contracted there as many survivors of Agent Orange will attest.
Increased calls for Biden’s removal from office under the 25th Amendment have followed.
