Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Merry Christmas!!  I had a great holiday this year, my parents came out to DC to spend Christmas with me.  They got here on Friday and will stay until about Wednesday or Thursday.  Unfortunately, Andy wasn't able to come but he had Christmas with my parents last weekend.  Maybe next year we will all get to have Christmas together.  Yesterday we took a trip to Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It was a long day, we were there about 5 hours; it was really interesting and we saw a lot!

 (One entrance to the cemetery, the building is the visitor's center)

 (There is a whole building dedicated to women in the military)

 (Graves of JFK, Jackie, their daughter Arabella who was stillborn, and Patrick who was only 2 days old when he died of Infant Respiratory Distress Syndrome...something that is now completely curable with today's medicine)

 (There was a wreath laying ceremony a few weeks ago at the cemetery)

 (Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier)

 (Tomb of the Unknown Soldier)

 (Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier-There are lots of rules related to being chosen as a guard for the Tomb, it's a 2 year commitment, one of the highest enlisted honors there is, the first six months a soldier is stationed at the Tomb, they aren't allowed to speak, as they can only study.  They are required to know all 175 notable people buried at the cemetery and the location of their internment, they must be between 5'10" and 6'2" tall and their waist must not exceed 30" around.  They live in a barracks below the Tomb and the Tomb has been guarded continuously, 24/7 without break since 1930.  The guard is not allowed to drink alcohol for the rest of their lives nor are they allowed to swear in public for the rest of their lives.  If they fail to abide by those rules, they will lose their right to wear a wreath pin, which they are given at the end of their 2 year assignment.  They take 21 steps as they cross in front of the Tomb, alluding to the 21-gun salute and they wait 21 seconds prior to walking back across.  Their weapon is always carried on the shoulder away from the Tomb and the guards spend 5 hours a day preparing their uniforms for duty.  Despite past orders to retreat to their barracks due to torrential weather, every guard has disobeyed the order and continued to guard the Tomb.  There are currently only 400 living soldiers who have the honor of wearing the sacred wreath pin)

 (Marble amphitheater at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, even the benches are marble)

 (Mast from the battleship USS Maine--It was sunk in the Havana Harbor off the coast of Cuba in 1898 precipitating the events of the Spanish-American War)

(Grave of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII)

(Grave of General Leonard Wood, Fort Leonard Wood is in Missouri)

 (Earl Warren was a Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court)

(John Foster Dulles has Dulles Airport named after him)

(This is the Military Nurses Memorial)

 (I thought this one was cool)

 (Unknown remains from the fields of Bull Run and the Route to the Rappahannock)

(The Arlington House, previous estate of the Robert E. Lee family-It was handed down to Lee's wife who was the step grand-daughter of President George Washington.  The home was seized by the US Government after Lee resigned his commission with the Union Army and joined the Confederacy.  He was considered a traitor by many and just to spite him, the government buried 30 fallen soldiers in his wife's flower garden, starting what is now known as Arlington National Cemetery.  William Christman was the first soldier to be buried in Arlington)

(The view of Washington, looking out from the terrace of the Arlington House.  The Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Monument are all visible in the distance)

 (The old amphitheater at the cemetery)

(Grave of former President William Howard Taft and his wife...huge plot and headstone for a huge President)

 (Grave of Omar Bradley, he was the last surviving five-star commissioned officer of the United States and the first general to be selected Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)

(Looking out across the cemetery.  I didn't know that families could purchase their own headstone but there were quite a few-only saw them on the graves of higher ranking officers though)

So that's it for this post. More next time!

Christmas at Walter Reed

This past week at work was the hospital Christmas party and on Friday another fellow nurse and I got to help celebrate Christmas with the staff in the GI clinic!

(Gingerbread Capitol on display in the lobby of the hospital)

 (Gingerbread of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on display in the lobby)

 (Christmas cake...)

 (and chocolate fountains!)

 (This Navy quintet was playing Christmas carols in the lobby of the hospital)

The next set of pictures is from the GI Clinic party...

 (The GI clinic turned these two bays into Santa's area, good job hiding everything with fake snow!)

 (They put a lot of work into decorating)

 (Loading up the tables with food)

 (They actually had a roast pig!  Many of the staff members are Filipino and roast pig is tradition in their culture)

 (Slicing up the pig...I did try it but it grossed me out)

 (Dessert table!)

 (The full spread)

(Table of goodies for the staff members children)

It was an awesome day celebrating with the GI clinic, they really know how to party!  Hopefully more parties are coming this week in the ER and PACU! 

American History and an Ugly Green Tree

This past weekend I was able to go back downtown DC again with some friends.  We went to the Holocaust Museum, my second time there but Julie's old college roommate was in town and really wanted to go.  We were able to see visit the Hall of Remembrance, which I didn't get to see last time so the visit was definitely worth it.  After that we went to the Museum of American History.  There was a lot to see in that museum!  I was a little disappointed because I thought it was going to be more famous artifacts from history, pop culture stuff, and there were some, but it was mostly a timeline of history, everything from Presidents to cars to the evolution of the light bulb.  The pictures I'm posting are a few of the things I thought was really cool...

 (The flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner-from the Smithsonian website-no pictures allowed)

 (100,000 bill...cool!)

 (Don't know what the point of a 6 1/4 cent bill is...)

(Summer uniform worn by General Dwight D. Eisenhower)

(Inaugural gown worn by Michelle Obama-they had every First Ladies gown)

 (Ruby Red slippers from the Wizard of Oz)

 Apollo Ohno's Speed Skates)

 (original Muppets)

 (Mouseketeers hat)

 (Tribute to Military Nurses)

After we finished going through the Museum of American History we found a delicious dinner at Elephant and Castle, a great Irish restaurant downtown DC.  Then we headed back over to the National Tree, hoping it would be a lot prettier at night than it is during the day.  It's not.  It's an ugly green tree they threw a net over... 

We tried to get closer to the tree for pictures and to the White House to take pictures at night with all the Christmas decorations but we were told the street was shut down for the time being.  We asked when it would be open again and the Secret Service officer told us he didn't know.  I think he was lying but regardless, we decided to head back to the metro.  About 5 minutes after we started walking back, we saw Marine One fly overhead, bringing the President back from the Army/Navy game he had been to earlier in the day.  No wonder the street was closed!  We didn't think it was worth walking back to the White House because it was really crowded with everyone trying to see the tree up close so that was it for the night.  Pretty cool to see Marine One though, even if it was dark out!

(This is what Marine One looks like during the day, found this pic on the internet-we saw it when it was dark though so I didn't get any good pictures of it)