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Marker
Audie Murphy who was not quite 21 when World War 2 ended. Today Marilyn stayed at the coach and so I had to go solo into D.C. Consequently, my pictures don't have a familiar face in them. I don't like that but not much choice when I am taking the pictures myself. I did my usual fast paced touring that many people would not like. I do keep up a pace and I like it that way because I'm just not the kind of guy that needs to stare at something for 20 minutes and I see a lot of stuff. I look at photo albums the same way. It drives me nuts when people look at a picture for an hour and a half before they turn a page. We are parked out in Maryland so I drove the truck to the nearest train station and rode that all the way to the west side to start at Arlington National Cemetery. It is a must see and has a tremendous impact when you see all those that sacrificed everything for freedom. The high spots are the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier and the changing of the guard which happens every 30 minutes 24/7, the Eternal Flame at the Kennedy gravesite, Audie Murphy's
Wall of stars
Each gold star represents 1000 dead Americans. This is the WW II Memorial erected in 2004. marker and General Robert E. Lee's home. There are only two Presidents buried there and one is Kennedy and the other is Taft. It turns out that Taft was a big fat tub of lard and even got stuck in a bath tub once and ended up having a special one made so it wouldn't happen again. This is the sort of thing you learn when you go on a guided tour and that's why I like them. There are between 25 and 30 funerals at Arlington every day. Lee and his wife lived there for 30 years but at the start of the Civil War he resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and went south to fight for the Confederacy. He was offered the commanding generals position of the Union Army by Lincoln first but he said he could not take up arms against Virginia even though he did not believe in slavery or secession. States rights were paramount at the time. This caused a couple problems. One was for Lincoln who spent the next several years finding a general that could fight and lead worth a damn and the other was for Lee who had his house
WW II
This is a unique and beautiful structure. Is the newest addition. taken by the Union for a back payment of taxes to the tune of 92.07. The government needed a place to bury all the dead and decided there was no more appropriate place than Lees front yard. It was an 11,000 acre front yard too since it was a plantation. From there I went to the Iwo Jima memorial and that is great too. By the way there is a difference between a monument and a memorial. For it to be a memorial it has to be erected after you die. Next I had lunch and then went to Ford's Theater and the Peterson House. Ford's was not as good as it was the last time I was there because before you could go up the stairs that that bastard Boothe went up all the way to the Presidents box and see his rocking chair and now you can't. The Peterson House is directly across the street and where Lincoln died the following morning at 7:22. That's what can happen when a bullet goes in the back of your head and almost reaches your right eye. One hell of a case of lead poisoning was the diagnosis. By this time
Ford's Theater
Where LLinclon was assassinated it is about 5 pm and I am getting pretty tired but not being one to stop at a whimpy 10 hour day I decided to sign up for a night tour of Washington and I am glad I did. It is much more scenic with everything all lit up. Our tour guide was great. You can't go up the 800 plus steps in the Washington Monument anymore because the emergency medical people got more than a little disgusted with having to go up there, stretcher in tow to get some 400 pound dildo that got three fourths of the way up there and had a heart attack or just crapped out for some other reason and bring 'em back down again. Can't blame them for that I guess. I got to do it a while back so that is okay anyway. It is near perfect weather here now with temps in the mid 80's.
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paul
non-member comment
Hmmm
Marilyn is probably getting bored with all the war history. I know I'm growing weary. Why don't you go do something else?