Arlington Cemetery
The National Cemetery at Arlington.
This is one of the most honored and hallowed places to everyone and anyone that has ever,
or will ever serve in our Armed Forces. I am moved beyond description each and every time that I go there.
On those visits where I am at the Tomb of the Unknown and a wreath laying ceremony is held,
the playing of TAPS is many times more than enough to bring me to tears.
If you have never been to Arlington National Cemetery you should make an effort to go at least once in your life.
If you get to see the White House, The Capital, and the Washington Monument while you are there,
that will be gravy, because the main course will be "Arlington".
The Tomb of the Unknowns.
A member of "The Old Guard" stands post at the Tomb of the Unknowns
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, without fail.
They are far and away one of the most impressive of any ceremonial guard units you will ever see in all the world.
This auditorium is directly behind the Tomb of the Unknowns.
It is where the national ceremony is held on Memorial Day.
This is the eternal flame that burns at the gravesite of President John F. Kennedy and his family.
Above is the former mansion of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
At the start of the Civil War, when Lee resigned his commission in the U. S. Army and joined the Confederacy,
his mansion, and all his lands in Arlington were confiscated by the government.
An officer in the U. S. Army, tasked with creating a gravesite for the many unexpected casualties of the initial battles,
used the Lee farm as he knew that if Union war dead were buried there Lee would never get the land back after the war.
He was right.
The "Old Guard" stands post.......
The mast of the "Maine", sunk in Havana harbor, thus helping to ignite the Spanish-American War.
Some of the bodies of her crew are buried around the monument,
while others are encased in the base of the monument.
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(you should be hearing the theme to "Apollo Thirteen" right now)