party s presidential nomination in today s texas gop primary. later, he s going to team up with donald trump to raise funds in las vegas. yesterday, president obama and romney spent memorial day on the campaign trail. nbc s tracie potts joins us with more on this from washington. tracie, good morning. reporter: hi, lynn. good morning. call today sort of pre-official for mitt romney, if, in fact, he s able to get those delegates from texas. he can go into this republican convention three months from now confident he ll take on president obama in the fall. texas is expected to put mitt romney over the top today giving him the 1,144 delegates he ll need to win the republican nomination. a big day tomorrow. looking forward to the good news. reporter: he ll make his case from battleground colorado toorksd then las vegas at a fund-raiser with donald trump. romney brushed off concerns about associate with trump who is still questioning president obama s birth certificate.
visited the vietnam memorial in washington today history would honor their service even though lots of federal americans did not. you came home and sometimes were denigrated when you should have been celebrated it was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened. that s why here today we resolve that it will not happen again. today, the president said the words so many vietnam vets did not hear when they came back from the war. welcome home. jennifer griffin live in washington. jennifer? 58,282 u.s. service members killed in 13 years, trace. the vietnam war began when president kennedy deployed hundreds of military advisors at the end of 1961. three years later, congress gave president linden johnson
trained. a cease-fire was signed. the last u.s. combat soldiers leave in march. the war is over but the north vietnamese keep fighting until saigon falls two years later. at 4:03:00 a.m. april 30, 1965, two corporal marines are killed at the saigon airport. they were the last u.s. troops, trace, to die in vietnam. america s longest war. trace. jennifer griffin live for us in washington. thank you. a child is presumed dead after a family s holiday on the water ended with a frantic search. rescue crews say a small boat sank this morning in the columbia river in washington state. onboard a grandfather, a father and his 13-year-old son. a nearby boater raced to pull the older men out of the water, but no sign ever the teenager. dive teams could not locate him either. officials say the teen was not wearing a life preserver. the man who confessed to the
i don t agree with all the team who support me. my guess is they don t agree with everything i believe in. but i need 50.1% or more and i m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people. reporter: romney spent memorial day with veteran senator john mccain while president obama paid tribute at arlington cemetery and the vietnam memorial in washington. you are true heroes and you will never be forgotten. let us never use patriotism as a political sword. patriots can support a war. patriots can oppose a war. and whatever our view, let us always stand united in support of our troops who we ve placed in harm s way. veterans make up 13% of the vote. with polls tightening in swing states, both candidates are pushing hard for their support. especially today in texas. texas has 152 delegates at stake in today s primary. mitt romney only needs 58 of them to secure this nomination.
the u.s. took the island and after d-day we left. after years passed the shoreline where so many gave their lives became covered with war debris and trash. i went there with the objective of doing something about getting the garbage cleaned up. i learned during that visit the remains of possibly hundreds of americans still lay where they fell. more than 500 soldiers who fought in the battle are still unaccounted for. cooper made it his mission to bring every last one home but hit a dead end. i couldn t get the attention of any of the dig shots in washington. so the now 93-year-old financed a documentary which was seen by the right people. an illinois congressman introduced legislation that helped launch a pentagon mission to recover, identify and return. but cooper is not done. there are tens of thousands of guys who died elsewhere in the pacific theatre.