President Obama Failed to Attend D-Day Ceremonies at Normandy-Fiction!

President Obama Failed to Attend D-Day Ceremonies-Fiction!

 
Summary of eRumor:
 

This is a forwarded email that said that only 6 times in 70 years a U.S. President failed to go to the D-Day Monument where fallen soldiers of that mission are honored.  The email goes on to allege that President Barack Obama did not attend ceremonies in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

 
The Truth:
This is fiction. The years shown in the eRumor for President Obama are correct but the writer omitted that the President attended the ceremony in Normandy marking the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion in 2009. The president was also expected to be present for the 70th anniversary ceremony with world leaders on June 6, 2014. This according to May 8, 2014, article by the New York Daily News.
https://youtu.be/guYsufYyQ40


News video of 2009 D-Day ceremony found on YouTube

Not only did the writer of the eRumor get the year wrong for the D-Day invasion, which happened on June 6, 1944 but spun a whopper by making the assumption that every sitting U.S. President has attended the ceremonies. To date, only 3 U.S. Presidents, other than President Obama have attended D-Day ceremonies at Normandy.

On June 6, 1984 President Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. President to attend ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion.
President Bill Clinton attended the 50th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion in 1994
President George W. Bush was there in 2004 to mark the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
There is a National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va and on June 6, 2001 President George W. Bush was present for the dedication ceremony. That was the first and last time a sitting U.S. President made an official visit to that memorial.
Posted 09/28/12   Updated 05/14/14