This morning we went out to the Air Force Memorial. Though we’d seen it and admired its form many times driving into and out of the city, we’d never actually stopped to see it and decided to give it a closer look…. annnd probably couldn’t have picked a much colder day to do it. Still, the sky was clear blue and there were only two other groups of people out there besides us. Next we need to check it out at night when those curves are all lit up.
Not too much happening lately during these ridiculously muggy August days, so I dug pretty far back into the photo archive to find a post for today. It’s a shot from the changing of the guard at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. It’s from March of 2006, and I remember it was a blisteringly cold day and really windy too as we stood out there and watched. (Pretty much as opposite as is possible of the sauna outside today).
The site opened in 1932, and it has been guarded around the clock since 1948 by the 3rd US Infantry Regiment. The tomb itself contains the anonymous remains from soldiers of all the wars: WWI, WWII, Korean, and Vietnam. However, the Vietnam tomb now remains empty, as the previously unknown soldier that was laid to rest there in 1984 was identified four years later, and was moved and reburied by his family at home in Missouri.
OK, so I’m pretty excited about the Olympics starting tomorrow and I’m feelin’ the USA pride. I think I’ll be paying extra special attention this year to the Olympic triathletes, and by that I mean my mouth hanging open wide at how fast and buff they are. I heard on the radio today that there will be a special multimedia presentation at the opening ceremony, which I am equally excited about seeing. I wish I could have worked on something like that.
This photo is from Arlington National Cemetery…. and hmm why is the moon out?
This morning I had the honor of attending the funeral of one of my co-worker’s mother. Her mother served as an Air Force Military Nurse and was given a full military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. It was a truly amazing and moving ceremony complete with the horse-drawn caisson, the bugler playing “taps”, the honor detail folding the flag, and a twenty-one gun salute.
This photo is from a trip we took to to the cemetery but in honor of Memorial Day the Army (I believe) has placed a small American flag in the ground in front of every single tombstone in the cemetery. To put it in scale for those who have not visited, Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of more than 290,000 of our country’s bravest and covers an area of 624 acres. That is a lot of flags.
