I have several friends who have watched Honour Flights leave for D.C., but I currently live on the receiving end of these flights. I was invited to come along to watch Alaska's Last Frontier Honor Flight lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Roughly 30 veterans had flown down, representing World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, etc. The four oldest WWII vets participated in the actual wreath laying ceremony. One of them was even from my hometown and said he recognized me (rarely a good sign).
"We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by."
-Will Rogers
We did learn that the guard at the Tomb will stop what he's doing to reprimand people. Three times in the 45 minutes we were there, the guard had to stop. Rambunctious crowd, it seems. Probably didn't help that it was about 85˚. Who knew it could be this hot anywhere in October?!
There were apparently several thing happening at the Tomb today. The AK wreath didn't stay up long as they prepped for the other three honour flights laying wreaths (judged based on the wreaths chillin' on the ground off to the side). In addition, as we were leaving the entire Marine Corps band (with two sousaphones) was unloading from their bus and heading up to the Tomb. A party, and we weren't invited. And then had to return to work sweaty...
The last time I was at Arlington, I thought, "When am I ever coming back here?" I recorded the changing of the guard and took a ton of photos, because I was pretty sure I'd never be there again. And here we are... the cemetery is the same (probably some additions), but this was very cool to see and certainly distinguished the two visits. So many Alaskans, so many Alaskan veterans who fought for so much of what D.C. represents and yet live about as far away as you can get in this country, all there at once, was awesome.
There were apparently several thing happening at the Tomb today. The AK wreath didn't stay up long as they prepped for the other three honour flights laying wreaths (judged based on the wreaths chillin' on the ground off to the side). In addition, as we were leaving the entire Marine Corps band (with two sousaphones) was unloading from their bus and heading up to the Tomb. A party, and we weren't invited. And then had to return to work sweaty...
The last time I was at Arlington, I thought, "When am I ever coming back here?" I recorded the changing of the guard and took a ton of photos, because I was pretty sure I'd never be there again. And here we are... the cemetery is the same (probably some additions), but this was very cool to see and certainly distinguished the two visits. So many Alaskans, so many Alaskan veterans who fought for so much of what D.C. represents and yet live about as far away as you can get in this country, all there at once, was awesome.
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