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Arlington Cemetery
cce1302
Member Posts: 9,555 ✭✭✭
Been conducting a couple burials out there each week. Really cool meeting these families.
A couple weeks ago, I met the author of Too Young for a Forgettable War http://smile.amazon.com/TOO-YOUNG-FORGETTABLE-William-Alli-ebook/dp/B003AILKQW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422664126&sr=8-1&keywords=william+alli
(Korea veteran). Buried one of the Marines mentioned in the book.
Today, toured the cemetery, guided by our unit historian. Spent time @ Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, paid respects to:
William Ward Burrows, 2nd Commandant of the Marine Corps
Delbert Black, 1st Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
JFK
Challenger & Columbia Crews
PanAm 103
Beirut, 1983
Lt Norman Ives, Navy Cross recipient, pioneer in navy diving & testing diving equipment
Rene Gagnon
Chappie James
9/11 Pentagon
Various medal of honor recipients
Cold & snowy up there today. Wind picked up to about 25 mph as we were leaving.
A couple weeks ago, I met the author of Too Young for a Forgettable War http://smile.amazon.com/TOO-YOUNG-FORGETTABLE-William-Alli-ebook/dp/B003AILKQW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422664126&sr=8-1&keywords=william+alli
(Korea veteran). Buried one of the Marines mentioned in the book.
Today, toured the cemetery, guided by our unit historian. Spent time @ Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, paid respects to:
William Ward Burrows, 2nd Commandant of the Marine Corps
Delbert Black, 1st Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
JFK
Challenger & Columbia Crews
PanAm 103
Beirut, 1983
Lt Norman Ives, Navy Cross recipient, pioneer in navy diving & testing diving equipment
Rene Gagnon
Chappie James
9/11 Pentagon
Various medal of honor recipients
Cold & snowy up there today. Wind picked up to about 25 mph as we were leaving.
Comments
We got to lay a wreath. I had the oldest and youngest on the Flight lay the wreath - 60 years between the two of them. I got to help. I am not telling, which one I am. [:D]
Let me know next time you come through.
Spent a little time there last Summer. I took an Honor Flight from our Neck of the Woods.
We got to lay a wreath. I had the oldest and youngest on the Flight lay the wreath - 60 years between the two of them. I got to help. I am not telling, which one I am. [:D]
I would guess the man with his shirt tail less than squared away..
Just one word to the wise.
When the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier clicks his heels three times, do not say 'There's no place like home'.
Brad Steele
If you leave there feeling un American, something is wrong with you.
If you leave here and feel like an American there's something wrong because 9,387 of these poor souls that gave everything have been left behind! That BS about nobody left behind is a joke!
Normandy American Cemetery
quote:Originally posted by Oakie
If you leave there feeling un American, something is wrong with you.
If you leave here and feel like an American there's something wrong because 9,387 of these poor souls that gave everything have been left behind! That BS about nobody left behind is a joke!
Normandy American Cemetery
I've got mixed feelings about this one, Smitty.
Those souls have earned the right to rest upon the soil they died to liberate, and their presence is an eternal reminder of the altruistic nature of the American Soldier. Sacrifice for the freedom of others has to be one of our highest callings.
I do not know how much truth there is to the old story that when DeGaulle told Eisenhower that all U.S. troops were to be removed from France, Ike looked him in the eye and asked if he was including those still at Normandy.
I am concerned, however, about our military cemetery in Tunisia, especially given the treatment of the British cemetery at the hands of the Libyans last month.
Brad Steele
Dad is actually in the columbarium
quote:Originally posted by US Military Guy
Spent a little time there last Summer. I took an Honor Flight from our Neck of the Woods.
We got to lay a wreath. I had the oldest and youngest on the Flight lay the wreath - 60 years between the two of them. I got to help. I am not telling, which one I am. [:D]
I would guess the man with his shirt tail less than squared away..
I would guess the shirttail guy is the youngest, and military guy is behind the wheelchair.
No ex-military guy I know of would attend that ceremony with a shirttail hanging out. Obviously one did, but I would hope it is not a person with such a moniker.
Brad Steele
I've got mixed feelings about this one, Smitty.
Those souls have earned the right to rest upon the soil they died to liberate,
If I were killed on a beach in a foreign land in enemy territory I'd want to be brought home and buried with my family in the good old USA. I'm willing to bet most of those guys would rather have come home too if given a choice. Same thing with the sailors on the battleship Arizona. I doubt any of those guys wanted to be laid to rest at the bottom of the harbor in Pearl Harbor.
Of course I might be wrong I have been before.
quote:Originally posted by Don McManus
I've got mixed feelings about this one, Smitty.
Those souls have earned the right to rest upon the soil they died to liberate,
If I were killed on a beach in a foreign land in enemy territory I'd want to be brought home and buried with my family in the good old USA. I'm willing to bet most of those guys would rather have come home too if given a choice. Same thing with the sailors on the battleship Arizona. I doubt any of those guys wanted to be laid to rest at the bottom of the harbor in Pearl Harbor.
Of course I might be wrong I have been before.
What about the Survivors that want their remains placed in the ship.
Hell l would love to make the WHOLE muslim World a cemetery[^][^][^][^]
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[:D]
I would guess the shirttail guy is the youngest, and military guy is behind the wheelchair.
No ex-military guy I know of would attend that ceremony with a shirttail hanging out. Obviously one did, but I would hope it is not a person with such a moniker.
[/quote]
They got about 4 hours of sleep the night before and were awake at 4:00 AM that morning.
Breakfast, bus ride, airplane ride, bus ride, memorial tour, bus ride eating the noon meal from a box (This time on the bus with no air conditioner with an outside temp of 95 degrees.), and finally about 15 minutes to prepare with only 24 hours of advance notice (and that was after he left from home the day before).
Yes, sometimes you don't have time or accommodations to get ready for the parade.
I am sure it meant more to us than "others". It was the fourth time I had been at the Tomb - and I cried like a little girl - and it didn't have a thing to do with shirt tails. [}:)]
The only folks in the photo that are not "ex-military" are the ones in uniform.
What about the Survivors that want their remains placed in the ship.
They want to be with their friends that they didn't bring home. They don't feel like that they deserve to be buried at home while their brothers are still lying at the bottom of the harbor. I'm sure if all the others were brought home they wouldn't be wanting to be laid to rest on a sunk ship.
There will be a veteran of Iwo Jima buried in the cemetery in a couple weeks. He is mentioned 3 times in the book Flags of our Fathers.
As a ten year old watching my Father break down in tears was something I did not understand. I had never seen him cry. In both locations we stood with Mom at the edge of the tombstones as my Dad walked alone down to see the markers of some of his buddies that are buried there. Didn't quite understand the whole thing back then, but could tell it affected my Dad. It had been 20 years since he first set foot in France. He never got to see where the men he served with had been buried until that day.
And to the ones that don't understand why these men were not returned back to the US, there were just too damn many of them that gave their lives to stop the tyranny, it was not feasible. No way to embalm them all in a decent time frame and no ships to send them home on. If a family desires to have their loved ones body returned to the US it can be arranged. To date no one has.
It should be a MANDATORY visit for all US citizens.
But Arlington was stolen from the Lees by the Federal Government.
Many years after the War of Northern Aggression, the US Supreme Court awarded the property back to the Lee family. Rather than force the government to disinter 20,000 graves and force out former slaves that the Feds had given land to, the heirs sold the property to the government.
Later, the government forced the former slaves off anyway.
Still, there are people there that do not deserve to be given that honor.
Today the Feds just steal whatever they want and the chance of an honest SCOTUS is hardly possible.