Photography by John Michael

Another “First” at Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery – Amphitheater

For those of you who have visited this website often, you know the love and admiration I have for Arlington National Cemetery and since June of 2010 with the new management, things have gotten so much better!

Over the last decade plus, the hours which I’ve walked and worked among  those acres of heroes at rest are countless, but each time it’s a place that I welcome to visit time and time again.

I spent St. Patrick’s Day 2013 in a very unusual and festive way… It was truly an honor to be selected to photograph the change of responsibility and  retirement of  an US Army Airborne Ranger …  at the Amphitheater of Arlington National Cemetery.  When President Woodrow Wilson dedicated it in May of 1920, it became a place where special events happen. These include: Sunrise Service on Easter Sunday, Memorial Day remembrance in May and honoring those who served in November on Veterans’ Day.  It would be later that year in 1920 that the first Unknown Soldier would be interred.

But back to the historic event …  it was a first … a first time that such an event would happen, where the echoes of great events still resonate within the marble structure.  On 17 MAR 2013… new echoes would join them…

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A President’s View On Defending the Freedoms

“Now let me make it clear that I believe there can only be one defense policy for the United States and that is summed up in the word ‘first.’ I do not mean first, but. I do not mean first, when. I do not mean first, if. I mean first –period.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

35th President of the United States

A Milestone in Special Forces is Finally Honored

It WAS October 12, 1961 when a visit by then President John F. Kennedy to Fort Bragg, North Carolina that would turn the tide and raise the awareness of these elite Soldiers of the US Army and award them officially their badge of honor – “The Green Beret”

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Risks and Costs

“There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

A President is Laid to Rest

Eternal Flame at President Kennedy's Grave

25 NOV 1963 -  The world was focused on Washington DC and Arlington National Cemetery, for the United States of America was paying final honors to it’s fallen President.

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From the "Watchmen" speech…

- John F. Kennedy


The speech was never delivered as the “Watchman” was assasinated on 22 NOV 1963 on his way to the “walls”.

A Rare Coincidence… Dual Missions…

The day began with that “perfect” final honors I wrote about earlier at Arlington National Cemetery. The day for the soldiers of the 3d Infantry Regiment – The Old Guard – – began earlier their day with a regimen of physical training, then at 1000, the preparations for the two missions at 1500 in Arlington National Cemetery for MG Alvin C Welling, US Army (Ret) and RADML Chauncey F. Hoffman US Navy (Ret).

I found one section of the Presidential Salute Battery at a location between the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and President John F. Kennedy’s grave. The other section was on the other side of the hill to the North. The rain poured down as the soldiers waited for the commo call to begin their mission, and off in the distance, one could hear the other battery section firing the salutes for the Admiral.

It was minutes later that the soldiers around me got into formation and we saw the procession to the South of us for General Welling. When the commo call came through the guns fired. The photo you see above is the first round in that mission.

Despite all the rain and cold, both sections executed their missions with precision & perfection.

“Guns go long…”

45 Years Ago – Losing JFK – Part 2

At 1:00 p.m., CST, after all heart activity had ceased and after a priest administered the last rites, the President was pronounced dead. We were dismissed from school and over the next few days, the citizens of the United States and the world were in shock that this occurred.

The sadness that enveloped the free world was monumental at the loss of this patriot and hero of WW II who saved his crew of PT109 and ended up as Commander-in-Chief.

45 Years Ago – Losing JFK – Part 1

It was today, the 22nd of NOVEMBER 1963 the event that shocked the United States and the world. I recall vividly while sitting in a classroom, the “voice from above” (we never knew who was on the intercom) announced that the President had been shot in Dallas…

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