How Obama learned to salute

But much more goes on behind closed doors. When Obama visits a military hospital, aides said, he sits quietly as mothers cry on his shoulder, or he puts on surgical scrubs to pray at the bedside of an unconscious Marine whose injuries are so severe it appears he won’t make it through the week…

But his visits as president began with a trip to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda in June. His two and a half hours at the facility, which is smaller than Walter Reed and treats Marines and Navy special operations forces, presented Obama with a startling view of the impact of war.

Many of the soldiers he came to see were unconscious or semi-conscious. One of them had been shot in the head and was in a coma. Another was missing half his face and was probably going to lose both his legs and probably his arm.