[Dan]

This wasn't posted last year, but here's the story from a local Fayetteville, NC article and a photo from another source.

Bush attends memorial for 82nd Airborne troopers
By KEVIN MAURER
Associated Press Writer

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — President Bush read from the Book of Isaiah Thursday during a private memorial ceremony for families of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, promising that he and first lady Laura Bush grieve with them.

"I know this hurts. You need to try and stay strong," Bush said, according to Liz Perkins, whose 27-year-old stepson Andrew was killed in Samarra, Iraq, in March 2007.

"He was very nice and very tearful in his eyes when he said that," she said.

Bush spoke briefly at the private rededication of the 82nd's memorial to paratroopers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The memorial was recently expanded because there is no more room for the names of the dead on its original granite column.

The 82nd has lost 165 members in Iraq and Afghanistan. The division suffered 87 fatalities last year, more than in any other year since the wars began.

During the ceremony, about 150 "Gold Star" family members were invited to place yellow roses at the base of the memorial's 12-foot granite column. Bush greeted the family members, hugging and posing for pictures.

"It was like burying him all over again," Perkins said. "Right now I am very haunted and it brought back a lot of memories of how he died."

Bush's visit to Fort Bragg - his fourth since taking office - coincided with "All-American Week," at the Army post. The 82nd's traditional homecoming was canceled last year because nearly the entire division was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before taking part in the memorial ceremony, President Bush spoke at the division's review ceremony, toured a barracks and met with a Special Forces team that recently returned from Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Csrnko, commander of Army Special Forces Command, and Maj. Gen. James W. Parker, commander of the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, presented Bush with an honorary Green Beret in a shadow box with insignia from all seven Special Forces Groups.

They also gave him a Yarborough Knife, created by the late Lt. Gen. William Yarborough who was instrumental in the buildup of Special Forces, and a silk scarf for the first lady.