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

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

Summary of the eRumor:
This is a forwarded email that said that for the past 68 years there has only been three occasions where 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.

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.

updated 09/28/12

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

In all the years since D-Day 1945, there are only three occasions when the sitting President of the United States of America failed to go to the D-Day Monument that honors the soldiers killed during the Invasion.

Only Three Times...
The occasions were:

1. Barack Obama 2010

2. Barack Obama 2011

3. Barack Obama 2012

For the past 68 years, every single president, except Obama, has paid tribute to the fallen American soldiers killed on D-Day.

This year, instead of honoring the soldiers, he made a 3,000 mile campaign trip on Air Force 1 to California to raise funds for the upcoming election.

Priorities? - - It speaks volumes... doesn't it?

Please remember this when you go to vote in November. One of those candidates for President doesn't care about those who sacrificed for world peace.