ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

Wednesday, August 5 – That was our only stop today...the best known cemetery in the United States…Arlington National Cemetery. A place of honor. A place of Valor. A place of remembrance.

Its 624 acres shelter the remains of over 320,000 servicemen and women, veterans from every war and major conflict in U.S. History. This is our nation's most sacred military shrine and bears silent witness to American history.

The soldiers who fought in the Civil War have a shield on their stones.

George Washington Parke Custis acquired the land that now is Arlington National Cemetery in 1802, and began construction of Arlington House. The estate was passed down to Custis' and his wife's (Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis) only surviving adult child Mary Anna Custis Lee, who was married to Robert E. Lee, who interestingly was married to a granddaughter of Martha Washington and step-grandfather to George Washington – a fact neither Marsha or Paul knew. After the Civil War to add insult to Lee, over 2,111 unknown Union and Confederate dead soldiers were buried in what was once Mrs. Lee's rose garden. This was the beginning of Arlington Cemetery.

Tomb of Civil War Unknown Soliders

Arlington House is being renovated and will be a Memorial to Lee when it is completed. There were no furnishing in the house and we could not walk in many of the rooms.

View from the porch. Left…Lincoln Memorial, middle…Washington’s Monument, right…Capitol

Perhaps the best known memorial in the Cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknowns. A sentinel of the Third U.S. Infantry maintains vigil around the clock. The guard paces 21 steps along side the Tomb, pauses for 21 seconds, then returns. The changing of the guard takes place every 30 minutes. “Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier known but to God” reads the inscription on the sarcophagus of the WWI soldier entombed here in 1921.

Just a few highlights from the ceremony.

    

    

                                 

    

    

Joining their comrade, unknown serviceman from WWII and Korea were interred on May 30, 1958. An unknown from Vietnam was interred on May 28, 1984. The Vietnam unknown was removed from the Tomb and was identified in 1998 through a very sophisticated DNA process. Currently no Vietnam unknown is in the tomb. With DNA processes, one has to wonder if another unknown will ever be interred in the memorial?

Memorials and monuments are interspersed with the graves of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Some mark famous men like John J. Pershing, WWI's General of the Armies. WWII heroes Audie Murphy and General George C. Marshall lie here. Explores, Astronauts,

Supreme Court Justices

and former Presidents are also buried here. President John F. Kennedy lies beneath the eternal flame. Jackie Kennedy Onassis is buried by his side.

John is on the left; Jackie on the right

His brothers, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy are also buried here just to his left They have a simple grave stone and a cross.

There are memorials to the

Columbia

Challenger

Iraq Rescue Mission

Remembering the Maine…USS Main. This is the mast of the ship.

Charles Frank Burlingame III, pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9-11.

There is an Amphitheater that seats 5,000. This is used for recognition ceremonies and special burials.

Paul wanted to see how it would feel to be someone of importance.

Though the past is close to all who visit Arlington National Cemetery, it is still an active cemetery. The flags stand at half staff when burials are underway. Twenty-five to thirty burials take place everyday. A funeral with full military honors is a dignified and moving occasion. An honor guard accompanies the American flag-draped coffin drawn by matching horses. A bank plays solemn marches while muffled drums beat the slow cadence for the procession. Before the remains are lowered, a squad fires three rifle volleys and a bugler blows the notes of “Taps.” Finally the guard folds the flag and presents it to the next of kin. You are asked not to take any pictures of a funeral but we could take a picture of the horse drawn carriage. They have a white set of horses and black set.

We rode home on the subway with a man and his wife who had just attended the burial of a relative. They were very moved and impressed with the ceremony.

Indeed, this is a very impressive tour. Another “must see” for those visiting the National Capital. There is a subway stop right outside the Cemetery, making it an easy and convenient place to visit.

ANOTHER INTERESTING STORY: In the photographs, you may notice Paul wears different t-shirts from various places. It is funny how people respond when they read them. Examples follow:

1. Cleveland Indians - “Go Tribe” or “What do you think of LeBron” or “Hey, the Mistake on the Lake” or “Must be hard to be a Cleveland fan”

2. Virginia Tech - “Go Hokies”

3. Hokies - “ What's a Hokie?”

4. Kent State - “Are you from Ohio too?” We walked through the Supreme Court Building with a young couple (college students) and he asked Paul about Kent. During our discussion, Paul mentioned the famous shooting by national guard troops during a Vietnam protest. The young man never heard of it! Funny, what has a major impact on a person of Paul & Marsha's age is considered fairly insignificant by this young college student.

5. Texas - “What part of Texas y’all from?” “We're from Port Aransas.” or “Go Cowboys.”

It never failed! Everyday someone would start a conversation with Paul concerning the topic of his t-shirt. So be careful what you wear, people do notice!

Thanks again for visiting with us. Hope y’all come back real soon.

LAST DAY IN DOWNTOWN D.C.

Tuesday, August 3 – I think – today will be our last day downtown DC....our weekly sub-way ticket expires. We exited the subway at the Smithsonian Station and walked the long trip to the Jefferson Memorial. It is way out of the main pathway of most other attractions. To make matters worse, they are doing some construction and require you to walk three quarters of the way around the Memorial to enter......enough already, Jeesh! It is nice but not overly impressive. A huge statue of Jefferson inside a large marble dome. Nothing seems to make it unique or memorable.

We then headed over to the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

When we first entered the tour, we were each given an Identification Card. This card tells the story of a real person who lived during the Holocaust. The card gives the name and lots of information about the person. Then it tells what was happening the person’s life between 1933-39 and 1940-44.

Marsha was Feige Schwarzfink from Szydlowiec, Poland. In 1941, her sister and she were taken to the labor camp at Skarszysko. She worked 12 hour days and received one slice of bread, a bowl of soup, and some ersatz coffee. They used the coffee to wash their hair which was always dirty and lice-infested. She was sent to three labor camps before being liberated on April 30, 1945. She emigrated to the United States in 1949. If she is still living, she would be 85.

Paul was Leif Donde from Copenhagen, Denmark. His family was smuggled into Sweden on a fishing boat in 1943. After Germany surrendered, he and his family returned to Denmark. If Leif is still living, he would be 77.

There are no photography allowed in the Museum. You begin by riding an elevator to the forth floor and then slowly walk through the exhibits to the ground floor. It is a very well done and extensive remembrance of the Nazi extermination of the Jews during WWII. Kind of sad and depressing. There are thousands of photographs, actual examples of items from the concentration camps, videos, power point presentations, and descriptions of this awful event. Much of this we had seen before but we spent over two hours walking at our own pace through the museum. A person could spend a full day in this museum.

The exhibition is divided into three parts: “Nazi Assault,” “Final Solution,” and “Last Chapter.”

**The photos are from the Museum website.

Thousands of shoes were found at the concentration camps.

We walked through a railcar that took thousands of Jews to their death. Photo mural of a selection at Auschwitz-Birkenau was displayed on the other side. It was dark and very moving experience.

Display of concentration camp prisoner uniforms.

Torah scrolls desecrated during the Kristallnacht pogrom.

Paul finally received a text from Marsha that she was through, and we met in the lobby to head to the next museum.

Next on our list was the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

When you enter you are greeted by a 12 ton elephant. This was a real live elephant at one time.

The museum was opened in 1910. Whether looking at the history and cultures of Africa, describing our earliest Mammalian ancestor or primate diversity around the world, examining ancient life forms including the ever popular dinosaurs, or exploring the beauty of rare gemstones such as uniquely colored diamonds, this Museum as it!

This extensive exhibit was of all types of animals. Reminded Paul of a huge Cabella Store with all the stuffed animals. Paul thought the skeleton display was most interesting. They had skeletons of almost any animal you could think of, from giraffes, turtles, birds, fish, buffalo, cows, dogs and even cats (sorry Bella).

Mammal Hall – These animals look like they are alive.

Normally in a museum the sign says DO NOT TOUCH. This one is so hands-on, look what it says…

Ocean Hall

Dinosaurs Hall…This was Marsha’s favorite.

Fossil Hall…Marsha found this fossil for all you back in Ohio.

Geology, Gems, and Mineral Hall…These were GOREGOUS!

Topaz

 

This is a necklace from Napoleon that contains 172 diamonds. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

 

We did see the Hope Diamond but just couldn’t get a good enough picture.

Special Exhibit…This is a mummy bull. Very strange.

When we first walked into the Human Origins hall this was the current world population.

In the time it took Marsha to snap the picture above (a few seconds), this was what the population changed to.

Amazing how fast the world is growing.

By this time Paul was running out of energy so he did a little people watching on a bench in the main rotunda while Marsha finished looking through the museum. Paul said he was one of the few men sitting on the benches that wasn't dozing off!!!

We finished our day in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. The Garden includes seventeen works from as well as loans for special exhibitions. This was nice but not nearly as wonderful as the sculpture garden in City Park, New Orleans. Paul felt he could have done most of these sculptures....ha ha!

Here are just a few examples. Look at the picture, try to guess the name and then check below the picture to see if you are correct. We will start out easy and go to the more difficult.

That’s right…Eraser

Very good…House

You are almost right…Thinker on a Rock

You men probably got this one…One-inch Weathering Steel

Now look real closely at the last one.

Correct…Girls. What you don’t see it? Well,the artist, a woman, regards this sculpture as her personal response to totalitarianism. We think someone needs to get a life…LOL

We returned home to relax for the evening. Arriving home about 4:30 p.m., Marsha remarked that it was the earliest we returned home all week. Can you say, “Exhausted!”

What Paul thinks is his last trip on the Metro.

Thanks again for stopping by. We look forward to seeing you back real soon.