SEATTLE -- At times life can move so quickly, but Memorial Day is a day to hit the pause button for just a few seconds.

For a short time at Seattle's Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery Monday, Jim Herndon was the only one there. He was talking to his brother Cole, who was killed on his first mission in Vietnam.

"It's just a little time for myself and him," he said. "I try to imagine what my life would be like if he had lived. And what his life would have been like."

Each headstone here is a story that reaches far beyond any single battle.

For Deanne Estigoy, the story is about her great uncle, Felix Estigoy. He died in 1967.

"I try to envision myself if I was there; trying to put myself in their shoes," she said. "And I try to reflect on that and appreciate them doing that for me."

Estigoy and a few others like to come here well before the official ceremony; before the music and the speeches..

They don't need that, just quiet time with no fuss, and no politics.

"Some wars are good, some are bad," Herndon said. "But to the people here, they were doing their duty, and we deserve to honor them."

At Arlington National Cemetery, President Bush paid tribute to America's fighting men and women who died in battle, saying national leaders must have "the courage and character to follow their lead" in preserving peace and freedom.

"On this Memorial Day, I stand before you as the commander in chief and try to tell you how proud I am," Bush told an audience of military figures, veterans and their families at Arlington National Cemetery. Of the men and women buried in the hallowed cemetery, he said, "They're an awesome bunch of people and the United States is blessed to have such citizens."

That provoked a standing ovation from the crowd in a marble amphitheater where Bush spoke. "Whoo-hoo!" shouted one woman, who couldn't contain her enthusiasm.

Bush and his wife, Laura, traveled from the White House across the Potomac River to the rolling hillsides of Arlington. Along the way, one man stood with a sign that said: "Bring Our Troops Home." But, otherwise, the presidential motorcade on a sparkling clear spring day was warmly greeted at the cemetery entrance by scores of people, including two men in hats, shirts and shorts made out of American flag material. Others visited gravesites where each white tombstone was marked with a tiny American flag.

"From faraway lands, they were returned to cemeteries like this one where broken hearts received their broken bodies," Bush said. "They found peace beneath the white headstones in the land they fought to defend. It is a solemn reminder of the cost of freedom that the number of headstones in a place such as this grows with every new Memorial Day."

He eulogized all U.S. troops who have died in service to the nation, but particularly those who lost their lives this past year.

He singled out Army Spc. Ronald Tucker of Fountain, Colo., who died less than a month ago in Iraq in a bomb attack that occurred as he returned from helping build a soccer field for Iraqi children. The president also spoke of two Navy SEALs, Nathan Hardy of Durham, N.H., and Michael Koch of State College, Pa., who often headed into battle wearing American flags on their chests under their uniforms. The two died Feb. 4 in Iraq and are buried side-by-side at Arlington.

"I am humbled by those who have made the ultimate sacrifice that allow a free civilization to endure and flourish," Bush said. "It only remains for us, the heirs of their legacy, to have the courage and the character to follow their lead and to preserve America as the greatest nation on Earth and the last, best hope for mankind."

Bush's motorcade drove out of the cemetery as cannon fire left gray smoke settling over the tombstones.