"Three years ago, I promised your generation that when your tour comes to an end, when you see our flag, when you touch our soil, you’ll be welcomed home to an America that will forever fight for you, just as hard as you’ve fought for us. And so long as I have the honor of serving as your Commander-in-Chief, that is the promise that we will never stop working to keep."

"This is the first Veterans Day in a decade in which there are no American troops fighting and dying in Iraq. (Applause.) Thirty-three thousand of our troops have now returned from Afghanistan, and the transition there is underway. After a decade of war, our heroes are coming home. And over the next few years, more than a million service members will transition back to civilian life. They’ll take off their uniforms and take on a new and lasting role. They will be veterans."

"As they come home, it falls to us, their fellow citizens, to be there for them and their families -- not just now but always; not just for the first few years, but for as long as they walk this Earth . . ."

"So long after the battles end, long after our heroes come home, we stay by their side. That’s who we are. And that’s who we’ll be for today’s returning service members and their families. Because no one who fights for this country overseas should ever have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they have earned when they come home."

" . . . When times are tough, we come together. When one of us falters, we lift them up. In this country we take care of our own –- especially our veterans who have served so bravely and sacrificed so selflessly in our name. And we carry on, knowing that our best days always lie ahead."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-...t-veterans-day