17 Powerful Images From Memorial Day

Americans gathered Monday to honor fallen military service members.

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EDUARDO MUNOZ / AP

Carlos Varon pays respect to war fallen soldiers while he places flags at graves at Cypress Hills National Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y.

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JONATHAN ALCORN / Reuters

Boy Scout Kevin Wong salutes at a gravesite of a U.S. military veteran at the Los Angeles National Cemetery.

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David Goldman / AP

Nancy Waring, of Cumming, Ga., touches the headstone of her son, U.S. Army and Coast Guard veteran Lt. Brian Scott Waring, at the Georgia National Cemetery in Canton, Ga. She also visited the grave of her husband, U.S. Army Vietnam veteran 1st Lt. Gerald Paul Waring, who died less than a year after the death of her son.

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Tom Pennington / Getty Images

Cub Scouts and Scout leaders place American flags on the graves of veterans buried at Moore Cemetery in Moore, Okla., the site of last week's devastating tornado.

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Charlie Riedel / Getty Images

Larry and Betty Martinez mark a grave of a friend whose temporary marker was blown away at the Moore City Cemetery.

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Tom Pennington / Getty Images

Cub Scout Owen Thomason carries a handfull of American flags while placing a flag on the graves of veterans buried at Moore Cemetery.

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Molly Riley / AP

A visitor points to the name of one who died during the Vietnam War, inscribed on the marble wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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MIKE THEILER / Reuters

"Trojan" Calton of Chillicothe, Ohio (L) searches for the name of a fallen U.S. soldier as Ray Ball, of Newark, Del., a U.S. Army reservist with an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, rubs a name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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Molly Riley / AP

A veteran looks for a name on the wall of the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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JOE SKIPPER / Reuters

Jeff Lee of Lantana, Fla., leans against the gravestone of his father, Frank Lee, during a Memorial Day ceremony at the South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth, Fla.

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Mark Wilson / Getty Images

President Obama positions a commemorative wreath during a ceremony on at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

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Mark Wilson / Getty Images

President Barack Obama hugs a woman while visiting section 60 at Arlington Cemetery.

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Morry Gash / AP

Allan Graves looks around Wisconsin Memorial Park Sunday, May 26, 2013, in Brookfield, Wis. The cemetery puts up hundreds of flags in honor of Memorial Day. Graves' mother and brother are buried there.

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Richard Tsong-Taatarii / AP

Desiree Neal pays a visit to her grandfather, deceased Korean War Purple Heart decorated Army Sgt. Lyle Johnson, who passed away in 2011, in Little Falls, Minn. She described her grandfather as a man who loved kids and spent a year and a half in a Denver hospital recovering from machine gun wounds.

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Seth Wenig / AP

Joe Schulmann pauses in prayer over a cross bearing the name of his neighbor, Michael Wick, who was killed during the Vietnam War, at the College Point Memorial Day Parade in New York.

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NICHOLAS KAMM / Getty Images

A man salutes as members of the US military veterans' Rolling Thunder bikers group ride past in Washington, D.C.

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Molly Riley / AP

To America's men and women in uniform past and present, we thank you for your service, courage and sacrifice.