Vice President Joe Biden mourned the five servicemen killed during a July shooting rampage in Chattanooga, Tenn., likening them to the son he lost nearly three months ago to cancer.
Speaking in intensely personal terms to the victims’ families at a memorial service Saturday in Chattanooga, Biden said he didn’t personally know any of the five men — Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith of the Navy, or Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist, Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan, Lance Cpl. Squire K. Wells and Staff Sgt. David A. Wyatt of the Marines.
“But, oh, I knew them,” he continued.