First lady mourns Charleston at base in Italy

VICENZA, Italy — Michelle Obama shared her dismay Friday over the killings of nine worshippers at a historic black church in the United States, telling American soldiers and their families based in Italy that she hopes such tragedies “will one day come to an end.”

“We have seen too many tragedies like this,” Obama said of the attack at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. “There is something particularly horrifying about something that happens so senseless in a house of worship.”

After the moment of solemnity, the U.S. first lady turned her attention to thanking the soldiers and their families for their service.

She noted that soldiers from U.S. Army Africa based in Vicenza were “the first American military boots on the ground to stop the spread of Ebola” and that the 173rd Brigade, also in Vicenza, deployed paratroopers in recent days so that “for so many, that means another Father’s Day without Dad around.”

Obama said one of her missions as first lady is “to make sure I shine a light, a really bright light, on all of you and everything that you do for the folks back home.”

The first lady then spent a half an hour among the troops shaking hands and giving hugs. Nearby, first daughters Malia and Sasha, Michelle Obama’s mother, Marion Robinson, and a cousin scooped ice cream for the soldiers, their spouses and children.

The first lady and her daughters later read books to about 150 children in the middle school gymnasium, and Obama presided over a surprise baby shower for 23 expectant mothers from the base.