First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind

First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind
By Michael Hill - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 20, 2011 20:48:20 EDT
WEST POINT, N.Y. — First lady Michelle Obama urged more than 1,000 cadets Friday night on the brink of graduating to keep in mind the families of the soldiers they will lead.

Obama addressed the white-clad cadets and their families gathered in the U.S. Military Academy’s castle-like mess hall for a graduation-eve banquet. It marked her first trip to the storied academy and dovetails with her recent work on behalf of military families.

“You’ll be helping your troops deal with the joy of a new birth and the disappointment of not being in the delivery room,” she said. “You’ll be helping a soldier cope with a family emergency halfway around the world.”

She noted that more than half of service members are married and 40 percent have two or more kids.

Obama is the only first lady to address cadets at their graduation banquet — a rare occasion for them to wear their dress whites and dine with their relatives. The mess hall was filled with thousands more family members in suits and dresses dining on filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes.

Obama reminded cadets that they not only must support their soldiers’ families, but that their families helped them to this point in their careers.
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First lady at West Point: Keep families in mind