Pentagon and Arlington

Tuesday, October 14 ~~ All the walking and standing done on Monday took its toll on the injured one (and my feet) so we decided to go easy today. We decided to give the Metro train system a try so we wouldn't have to bother about traffic, the crazy street system here, and finding parking spaces and paying to use them.

First stop -- The Pentagon

The Pentagon Memorial recently opened to visitors. It is in honor of the 184 men, women, and children killed in the 9-11 attack. While most of the memorials to be seen are about events I learned about in school, this, along with the Vietnam Memorial seen yesterday, represent lives lost during events that I was around for. This one, especially, hit home because I saw 9-11 unfold while watching TV.
That morning I was awakened by my radio alarm clock with news of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Curious, I got up and turned on one of the morning news shows. Just a random accident - or so everyone thought. Then, many of us watched stunned as the second plane hit. Later, word came that the Pentagon was attacked in the same fashion. Our country was attacked. Those memories came back as I wandered through this memorial. Pictures are available here for viewing:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=18s0ijij.bmjcwmej&x=0&h=1&y=-8b709r&localeid=en_US
Back on the Metro to visit
Our country has many national cemeteries where soldiers and their families may be buried. But perhaps the most famous of them is Arlington. Here we took a tourmobile. We were lucky to witness a full military honors funeral procession - Air Force. Our guide said this honor is reserved for high-ranking personnel. An honor guard accompanies the flag-draped coffin sitting on a caisson(?) drawn by 4 matched horses (1 riderless). A band was also present.
We visited Kennedy's burial site with the eternal flame and The Tomb of the Unknowns. At the Tomb, the Third U.S. Infantry maintains an around the clock guard. The sentinel paces 21 steps down the mat before the tomb, turns to face the tomb, pauses 21 seconds, turns and again waits 21 seconds before walking back the 21 paces, turns to face the tomb, waits 21 sec, turns again to wait 21 sec. and begins the process again. He does this for an hour. The changing of the guard takes place every hour in a very precise ceremony. There are over 320,000 servicemen, beginning with the Civil War, and their families buried here with an average of 27 burials every weekday. It is an impressive site. Check out the photos at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=18s0ijij.1mil09qj&x=0&h=1&y=-dloaal&localeid=en_US

After resting up a few hours, we took a drive to try our luck at finding that fruit stand we saw Sunday so we could buy some apples. No luck. I knew we were close but I couldn't find the street it was on.