'They Were My Son,' Joe Biden Says Of Servicemen Killed In Chattanooga Attack
By Michael A. Memoli contact the reporter
Vice President Joe Biden mourned the five servicemen killed during a July shooting rampage in Chattanooga, Tenn., likening them to the son he lost nearly three months ago to cancer.
Speaking in intensely personal terms to the victims’ families at a memorial service Saturday in Chattanooga, Biden said he didn’t personally know any of the five men — Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith of the Navy, or Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist, Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan, Lance Cpl. Squire K. Wells and Staff Sgt. David A. Wyatt of the Marines.
Here are the 5 military personnel who died in the Chattanooga shooting
“But, oh, I knew them,” he continued. “Confident, committed, determined, trustworthy, passionate and always, always loyal — I knew them. They were my son.”
Biden praised their heroism as emblematic of the character of a “9/11 generation” he said was the finest in the nation's history and he spoke defiantly about the threat of extremism that the U.S. now faces.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-biden-marines-chattanooga-20150815-story.html