In a moving address to veterans and families at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, President Donald Trump singled out a member of his Cabinet — Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, who lost his youngest son in the war in Afghanistan.

The cameras panned to Kelly, who was seated next to Ben Carson and his wife. Kelly turned toward the president, and appeared to listen with great interest.

Kelly, said the president, “understands more than most ever could or ever will the wounds and burdens of war.”

“Though they were here only a brief time before God called them home, their legacy will endure forever.”

He and his wife Karen, the president said, “have born the single most difficult hardship of them all — the loss of their son, Robert, in service to our country.”

“Robert died fighting the enemies of all civilization, in Afghanistan … today, 300 million American hearts are joined together with you. We grieve with you, we honor you, and we pledge to you that we will always remember Robert, and what he did for all of us.”

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Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly was the youngest son of Kelly and his wife Karen. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and was serving his first tour of duty in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2010, when he stepped on a roadside bomb in Helmand province and was killed instantly. He was 29.

Robert Kelly was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, with his father giving the eulogy at a funeral service at Fort Myer Memorial Chapel.

Gen. John F. Kelly is the only four-star general to lose a son in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kelly himself was a commander in the Iraq War, returning to the U.S. in 2009 to serve as the top military adviser to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. In 2012, two years after his son’s death, he became the head of Southern Command, overseeing all U.S. military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Trump nominated Kelly to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security a month after the election, on December 7, 2016 — the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 20, the same day as the inauguration of the president, and was sworn in that evening.

But even as he sat on Memorial Day and listened to the president speak, his only remaining son, Johnny, is preparing to leave on what Trump noted would be his “fifth deployment.”

His son-in-law, meanwhile, is a wounded warrior.

“The Kelly family represents military families across the country who carry the burden of freedom on their shoulders,” said the president.

All of those men and women lost, he said, had their “own stories” and their own “beautiful dreams.”

They were “all angels sent to us by God,” the president said.

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“Though they were here only a brief time before God called them home, their legacy will endure forever.”

Trump also recognized Bob Dole, the long-time Republican senator from Kansas who served as the majority leader of the U.S. Senate and was the Republican nominee for president in 1996.

Dole, appearing thin and somewhat frail, though alert and still handsome at 93, was seated with his wife Elizabeth on his right and his daughter on his left. The president noted that Dole had “fought bravely” and was “severely wounded” by the Germans in World War II, saying his sacrifice is a reminder of the many U.S. service members lost in the war, which ended 72 years ago.

He also recognized the late Specialist Christopher Horton, and his widow, Jane, who was in attendance, saying Horton — a “talented, tough guy” who’d trained as a sniper and was deployed to Afghanistan with the Oklahoma National Guard — “loved his country with every part of his being.” Horton was killed in a gun battle in Afghanistan in 2011, just three months into his deployment, in a gun battle with enemy forces. He was 26.

The most emotional part of the address came when the president turned to David and Rose Byers, whose son, Major Andrew Byers, had graduated at the top of his class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and was sent, a year ago, on his third deployment.

“This time, he went to Afghanistan,” said Trump. “On November 3, he was one of 10 Special Forces operators to land by helicopter near a Taliban safe haven in northern Afghanistan. They trekked through a mile of waist-deep mud and climbed a steep cliff before finally reaching the village that they wanted to reach. There, a night-long battle ensued. Andrew and his team fought off wave after wave after wave of enemy fighters. A grenade detonated, and as the Taliban began to surround the American and Afghan forces, Andrew ran through the smoke, and through the hail of bullets, to rescue an Afghan soldier.”

As the president spoke these words, the cameras switched to the parents as their faces began to tremble and give over to the grief of the recent loss of their son, just six months ago.

“In the midst of this torrent of gunfire and danger, Andrew worked heroically to open a gateway and get his men to safety, risking his life to save theirs,” said the president. “And he did it. Unbelievably, he did it. But in saving those lives, Andrew was killed, right then and there, by enemy fire.”

Andrew Byers was awarded the Silver Star for courage in battle.

“To his parents, David and Rose,” the president said, “we stand in awe of your son and his courageous sacrifice. On behalf of the American people, I express to you our everlasting gratitude for what your son did for his country, for his comrades, and for all of us.”

The president ended with a passage from the Old Testament, from the Book of Joshua, that he said David Byers told him he holds onto: “The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”