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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GHTime Code(s): nc nc Posted 2 months ago at 10:08 am. 1 comment
It’s 20 January 2013, something special is happening at Arlington National Cemetery…
It’s amazing what good management with a vision and passion will do… that has been on-going now for nearly three years at the United States of America’s shrine to heroes who have served and fought to keep the freedoms of the republic. Today was another “expect the unexpected” as I was told at the event where a statue to “The Bugler” was unveiled at the newly renovated interior of the Visitors’ Center.
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GHTime Code(s): nc Posted 4 months ago at 8:29 pm. Add a comment
The offer came via an email that literally asked – “How would you like to tour the White House?” On my first trip many decades ago, I along with a large group meandered through the home of the President and center of power in the United States of America. And here in 2013, it happened again…
The White House
The PEOPLE’S House
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GHTime Code(s): nc nc Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago at 6:14 pm. 1 comment
Fort Benning – Main Gate Sign
2012 OCT 07 Columbus, Georgia: The 1962 All Service, Undefeated Fort Benning Doughboys Football Team began their 50th reunion weekend. First with a tour of the US Army’s premier post where many who have worn the uniform began their service to the United States of America. THe Fort Benning Doughboys Football Team of that year holds a special distinction that has yet to be challenged over the five decades since the team of 1962 set it. It was great that the current team (composed of active duty Soldiers) took time to honor them during their game that Sunday of the reunion weekend.
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Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago at 6:52 am. Add a comment
Iron Mike
One of my Facebook friends (Thanks Chris…) shared this with me and I thought it deserved a permanent place on my website.
Over many years, since 2000 specifically, I have had the honor of walking and working among many who have and are serving among the United States military. Many of them have shared some of their experiences with me… others haven’t. In many cases I’ve heard and seen first hand some of the sacrifices they and those around them have and are making to defend the freedoms that are enjoyed in the United States of America and are the envy of the world.
It is because of the military that I can post this and other items as they have sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies both foreign and domestic. I don’t know where or who originally wrote what follows, but I thank them for writing these words….
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GHTime Code(s): nc Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 6:13 am. 3 comments
For the last three years, I have watched and captured the outstanding 50 GUN Salute to the nation on the 4th of July – Independence Day. It’s an amazing event that has been precisely executed by one of the elite platoons in the US military – The Presidential Salute Battery…
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GHTime Code(s): nc nc Posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago at 12:07 pm. 1 comment
US Army Air Forces Branch Insignia
It was 20 JUNE 1941 that the US Army Air Corps becomes the US ARMY Air Forces. Yet it would take until after WW II for the US Air Force to emerge as a separate military service from what the US Army Signal Corps began in 1908 when the Wright brothers responded to the US Army’s request for a heavier than air flying machine.
That first military flight occurred on Fort Myer Virginia during September 1908. It would be in July 1909 that upon the Wright Brothers return to Fort Myer that the Signal Corps of the US Army would accept the Wright Flyer as the approved response to their request. After an appropriate location was selected while using a gas balloon, the Wright Brothers begin flight training of US Army pilots at what now is College Park, Maryland. It is where the oldest continuous operating airport in the world, still exists along with a museum to the history of aviation. Pilots trained at College Park included Frank Lahm and Henry A. Arnold.
GHTime Code(s): nc nc nc nc Posted 11 months, 1 week ago at 6:44 am. Add a comment
The US Army celebrates 237 years of defending the United States and the Constitution – preserving the founding fathers’ vision of freedoms not found in any other country in the world … Thank a Soldier for his service!
GHTime Code(s): nc Posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 3:54 am. Add a comment
It was US Army, Major General Robert A. McClure’s vision to create the Special Forces which resurected the WW II organization the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) that with their behind the scenes work helped to win the war. Lietenant Colonel Russell W. Volckmann built the plan for the Special Forces and Colonel Aaron Bank executed it.
The first Special Forces unit in the Army was formed on 11 June 1952, when the 10th Special Forces Group was activated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A major expansion of Special Forces occurred during the 1960s, with a total of eighteen groups organized in the Regular Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard. As a result of renewed emphasis on special operations in the 1980s, the Special Forces Branch was established as a basic branch of the Army effective 9 April 1987, by General Orders No 35 dated 19 June 1987.
Known to many as “The Silent Professionals,” over the years the Special Forces evolved to becoming the premier force of the US military
GHTime Code(s): nc nc nc Posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago at 6:29 am. Add a comment
Finding a parking pl;ace on the Saturday that they are holding the Cherry Blossom parade in Washington DC is a challenge. Finally I found one on a street near the Potomac River. From there 
I had trekked down to the Jefferson Memorial to catch the action of the All-Service Drill Team Competition, something that is a true sight to see — rifles with bayonets fixed the spinning and twirling of the nearly 11 pound weapons by these talented members of the military – the Drill teams of the services: US Army, US Marine Corps, US Navy, US Air Force, US Coast Guard and the US Merchant Marine.
I had gotten there just as the US Marine Corps began their routine and continued to photograph until they announced the winner for 2012. With the memory card full of hundreds of photos, I walked back around the tidal basin and along the Potomac River – all lined with the cherry trees which normally at this time would still be in bloom, yet a very warm March forced them all to jump out early and now the trees were full of leaves … all except one.
As I approached where my vehicle was parked, there still loaded with blossoms was a cherry tree. An though my extensive inventory of photos from days past includes many cherry blossom photos, it was serendipitous, there was space for one photo remaining on the memory card in the camera. So here up close and personal is “The Last Washington DC Cherry Blossoms of 2012″
For those who missed the spectacular display of color when the other trees were in bloom, sorry, you’ll have to wait until 2013.
Did you see the 2012 cherry blossoms in full bloom?
GHTime Code(s): nc Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 12:56 pm. 1 comment
