Memorial Day 2006

We had a reception at our house yesterday for a friend of the family that just graduated summa cum laude and other honors from Southern Nazarene University. She was awarded a Bachelor's degree in education. I've been working on the exterior of the house for the past few days and so I wasn't able to post yesterday about my visit to the National Museum of Natural History. I'll post that later.

Today I want to post the photos that I took on my visit to Arlington National Cemetery. The soldiers that guard the Tomb of the Unknowns make a serious committment to this duty. The Tomb has been guarded 24 hrs a day since 1937. http://www.tombguard.org/FAQ.html

This is not on the Tomb of Unknowns. This engraving is at the foot of the entrance to the Memorial Amphi- theater. The way I was taught, the year 1915 in Roman numerals should be MCMXV but this has MDCCCCXV. While this does add up to 1915, I think it may just fall into the category of "artistic liberty".

Here the replacement Sentinel and the Com- mander are coming in for the changing of the Guard. Those lines are not painted on the ground, they're worn into the stone.

The Sentinel coming on duty (standing on the stone) and the Commander (walking on the mat).

The Sentinel going off duty (left, facing to the right) the Commander (middle, facing the camera) and the Sentinel coming on duty (right, facing to the left).

The Sentinel that has just come on duty is now on the mat. The Commander and the Sentinel going off duty will exit on the same exact worn paths.

The obligatory grave marker shot. It may sound trite, but no matter how many times you've seen similar photographs actually being at Arlington Cemetery is quite moving.

The much visited gravesite of JFK, Jackie O and two of their children that died in infancy.

Turning around at JFK's gravesite, you can see the Washington Monument in the distance.