September 22, 2014

Arlington National Cemetery &

Arlington House (The Robert E. Lee Memorial)

Arlington National Cemetery has evolved to a national shine to those who have honorably served our Nation.  There are between 30 to 40 burials performed each week. 

Flags in the cemetery are flown at half-staff from a half hour before the first funeral until a half hour after the last funeral each day. 

The cemetery is divided into 70 sections.  Section 60 is the burial ground for military personnel killed in the Global War on Terror since 2001.  Other sections include members of military chaplains, astronauts, nurses, war correspondents and unknowns.

Car access is controlled at the cemetery.  Driving into the cemetery is allowed for disabled visitors and those attending a funeral service or visiting a gravesite. But there is ample parking at the automated parking lot next to the cemetery.  The parking procedures are:

Take a ticket from the ticket dispenser upon entering the garage.
Keep the ticket when you exit the vehicle.
Pay at the kiosks in the Welcome Center before returning to the garage using cash or credit card.
Once the ticket is paid, you have 20 minutes to exit the parking facility with your receipt ticket.
(If you lose the ticket, you must obtain and pay for a lost ticket at the pay station-lost tickets are subject to the 7-8 hour daily charge.)

We opted to purchase a tour ticket at the cost of $8.00/each that departs continuously from the Welcome Center every 20 minutes. 

 

Our first stop was at the President John Fitzgerald Kennedy Gravesite.  On a visit to Arlington, President Kennedy had admired the peaceful atmosphere of the location.  Following his assassination Mrs. Kennedy, despite opposition from family members who believed the president should be buried in Massachusetts, pushed for burial at Arlington because, “He belongs to the people.”

Mrs. Kennedy expressed a desire to mark the president’s grave with an eternal flame.

  Also buried at the site are two deceased Kennedy children and Jacqueline Kennedy.  Located a short distance away are the graves of Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy marked by a simple white Christian cross and a granite plaza. 

 

 

The Kennedy Gravesite is located directly below The Arlington House, a memorial to Robert E. Lee.

Our next stop on the tour was at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier located on top of a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. 
 The tomb is one of the more well-attended sites at the cemetery. 

 Opened to the public on April 9, 1932, the tomb consists of seven pieces of marble. 

Entombed in the Tomb of the Unknowns are the remains of soldiers from World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. 

 The remains of the formerly unknown soldier from the Vietnam War were disinterred when the remains were identified as those of Air Force 1^st Lt. Michael Blassie, whose family had them reinterred near their home in St. Louis, Missouri.  It has been determined that the crypt at Vietnam Unknown will remain empty.

I first observed the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier some twenty years ago.  I thought I remembered it being moving and was prepared to be moved again.  But I underestimated my memory of the experience. 

As the announcement was made for all to rise, you could hear a pin drop as the visitors remained silent in honor of the ceremony.

Perpetually since July 2, 1937, the Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded by the U.S. Army.   The Old Guard, (3^rd U.S. Infantry Regiment), began guarding the Tomb on April 6, 1948. 

The Tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in any weather.  The guard is changed every hour on the hour October 1 to March 31 and every half hour from April 1 through September 30. 

The ceremony begins with an impeccably uniformed relief commander who appears on the plaza to announce the Changing of the Guard.  The new sentinel arrives and unlocks the bolt of his or her M-14 rifle.  The relief commander walks out to the Tomb and salutes, then, as he faces the spectators, asks them to stand and stay silent.

A detailed white-glove inspection of the weapon, checking each part of the rifle is performed by the relief commander. 

 

 

Then, the relieving sentinel and the relief commander meet the retiring sentinel at the center of the path in front of the Tomb.

 

 

 

 

All three salute.

Then the relief commander orders the relieved sentinel, “Pass on your orders.”

The current sentinel commands, “Post and orders, remain as directed.”

The newly posted sentinel replies, “Orders acknowledged,” and steps into position on the black mat.

When the relief commander passes by, the new sentinel begins walking at a cadence of 90 steps per minute.

The Tomb Guard marches 21 steps down the black mat behind the Tomb, turns, faces east for 21 seconds, turns and faces north for 21 seconds, then takes 21 steps down the mat and repeats the process.

After the turn, the sentinel executes a sharp “shoulder-arms” movement to place the weapon on the shoulder closest to the visitors to signify that the sentinel stands between the Tomb and any possible threat.

(Twenty-one was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed-the 21 gun salute.)

When not “walking”, duty time is spent in the Tomb Guard Quarters where they study cemetery knowledge, clean their weapons and help the rest of their relief prepare for the Changing of the Guard.

 

 

At the conclusion of the ceremony we walked around the Memorial Amphitheater and toured the Memorial Display Room that houses artifacts and informational displays about the creation of the Tomb.

Located below the Memorial Display Room is the Section 60 Memorial Collection Exhibit on display from September 11 through November 7, 2014.

  This special exhibit is a collection of items left in Section 60 to honor service members who dies in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Section 60, is an area where the most recent war dead are buried.)

Just across the road from the Tomb we visited three memorials.  The first one was the memorial to the seven crew members who lost their lives aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger when it exploded on January 28, 1986, just seconds after takeoff.  It took nearly two months for the remains to be recovered from the ocean floor off the shore of Cape Canaveral.

The second memorial is one dedicated to the Iran Rescue Mission.  During the fall of 1979, hundreds of Iranians seized the U.S. embassy and took 66 Americans hostage.  All female and black hostages were released, along with one man for medical reasons leaving 53 captives.

In the absence of diplomatic options, President Carter authorized a secret military operation.  The mission was aborted when a freak accident caused two of the aircraft to collide killing eight American service personnel.  The hostages were freed 444 days after they had been captured.

The third monument is dedicated to the crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia.  Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space-rated Space Shuttle in NASA’s orbiter fleet.  Over 22 years of service it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry on February 1, 2003.

Also located in this area is the USS Maine Mast Memorial.  The mast is the actual mast from the USS Maine which was sunk in Havana Harbor, Cuba, February 15, 1898. 

We hopped back on the tour bus and got off at the Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial. 

The house is a Greek revival style mansion.

In 1857, George Washington Custis (grandson of Martha Washington and adopted son of George Washington) willed his 1,100 acre-property to his only surviving daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis. 

Mary Anna had married Lt. Robert E. Lee, a distant cousin.  When she inherited the estate it needed much repairs.  Robert, as executor, took a three-year leave of absence from the Army to begin the necessary improvements.  The will also required the freeing of the slaves on the estate within five years of Custis’ death.   

 

The Lees called Arlington House home for 30 years raising their seven children there. 

 

 

 

 

When Virginia seceded from the United States, Lee resigned his commission and joined the military forces of the Confederate States of America.

 

Mary Anna, knowing her home would soon be infested with federal soldiers left, entrusting he keys to the house with Selina Gray, who kept watch over the Lees’ possessions including cherished family heirlooms that had belonged to Mrs. Lee’s great-grandmother, Martha Washington.

Selina Gray was a second generation Arlington slave, who along with her husband Thornton, raised eight children in a single room in the South Slave Quarters.  Selina, the personal maid of Mary Anna, shared a very close relationship with her mistress. 

 

 

 

 

When Selina discovered some of the treasures she had been entrusted to safeguard had been stolen by soldiers, she ordered them “not to touch any of Mrs. Lee’s things.”  It was through Selina Gray’s efforts that many of the Washington pieces were saved. 

 

 

The property became a burial location as the number of Civil War casualties outpaced other local Washington, D.C.-based cemeteries.   On June 15, 1864, the War Department set aside approximately 200 acres to use as a cemetery.

After the war, Robert E. Lee made no attempt to restore his title to the Arlington house and Mary only visited the house once before her death.
The Lee’s oldest son, George, filed suit to regain his property.  A trail ensued in which the court ruled in favor of Lee finding that the estate had been illegally confiscated and ordered it be returned to the Lee.  But George was only interested in monetary compensation eventually settling on a sale price of $150,000. 
Robert E. Lee, a hero in the South, began being embraced by the North in the early 1900s.  The nation, in a climate of reconciliation, saw him as a great general who helped heal the country’s wounds by his word and example in the post-war years.

Legislation to honor Lee was sponsored by Congressman Cramton of Michigan in 1925 by having the US Army restore the Arlington estate to how it looked when the Lee family left in 1861. 

In 1933, after the National Park Service acquired Arlington, the restoration of the house and grounds was continued.

We ended our tour where we had begun, at the Visitor Center where I stamped my passport and paid for our parking.

 

 

 

 

Before leaving the area we drove the short distance to the US Marine Corps War Memorial that honors the men of the United States Marine Corps who have given their lives to their country since November 10, 1775.

The statue depicts one of the most famous incidents of World War II, the raising of the American flag on the tiny island of Iwo Jima.

“Iwo Jima’s location midway between Japan and American Bomber bases in the Mariana Islands was key to both countries’ strategies.  Since the summer of 1944, American long-range B-29 bombers had been flying 2,700 miles round-trip to strike the Japanese Home Islands.  Many of these unescorted bombers fell prey to Japanese defenses and were lost at sea.  With Iwo Jima’s airfields in American hands, U.S. fighter planes could escort bombing missions and damaged bombers could use the island as a sanctuary.

The Japanese were well prepared for this battle and would defend the island to their deaths.  The Marines had the ability to take the island but, the question was, at what cost?

The battle for Iwo Jima lasted from February 19 to March 26, 1945.  Over 70,000 troops, mostly Marines, engaged over 21,000 Japanese defenders.  Nearly 20,000 Marines and sailors were wounded and almost 7,000 killed during the battle.  Only 1,100 Japanese troops survived.  The capture of Iwo Jima produced immediate benefits to the strategic bombing campaign.  By war’s end, 2,400 B-29s made forced landings on the island.”

“On the morning of February 23, 1945, on the fifth day of battle, a 40-man Marine combat patrol ascended the rocky slopes of Mount Suribachi, a 550 foot extinct volcano at the southern tip of Iwo Jima.”

The patrol had been ordered to seize and occupy the crest and raise a small American flag.
“When the patrol reached the rim of the crater, some of the Marines fought off a defending force of Japanese, while others located an iron pipe, tied the flag to it, and raised the Stars and Stripes.  Watching the flag go up, Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal proclaimed, “The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for another 500 years.”
“Shortly after the raising of the first flag, another patrol was sent to raise a larger flag that would be visible over the entire island.  As the second group hoisted this flag, Associated Press Photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the moment on film.  For Marines on the battlefield, the two flag raisings gave hope for a quick victory.”