Place to see: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, United States

Postcards about Arlington National Cemetery:

• 

  28 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  Sometimes perfection and precision and continuity become a way to honor a loss so ineffable, so profound, so sacrificial that nothing else bears sufficient testimony. Sometimes it is good to leave behind the luxurious possibilities of travel and to pause in silence for those who have died so that we have our lives of both luxury and introspection. You stand here alive and others have preceded you in death, others have died protecting the freedoms you might take for granted, others, your age or the age of your own children, left prematurely and incompletely. You stand here and honor them.

• 

  28 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  It feels right to witness the solemnity that honors the unknown soldiers. All stand for the Changing of the Guard which is done with precision and dedication of the highest order. Your mind comes back to your own profound memories of touching life and death, and it brings you closer to appreciating the enormity of the sacrifice of those who lie here. The absolutely precise walk 21 steps on the west face next to the tombs of four Unknown Soldiers becomes a metronome for the rhythm of our nation's rises and falls, one man or woman at a time.

• 

  16 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  Leave behind the luxurious possibilities of travel and pause in silence for those who have died so that we have our lives with the luxury of introspection. There are no fees to pay here, no required dress other than respectful, no music, great entertainers or sumptuous meals. Here you bring your spirit, your mind and your comprehension that you stand here alive before those who have preceded you in death, those who have died protecting the freedoms you perhaps often take for granted, those the age perhaps of your own children whose lives have ended prematurely and incompletely.

• 

  16 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  The Changing of the Guard at Arlington National Cemetery is a solemn ceremony acknowledging those who not only lost their lives in service, but whose loved ones were denied the simple but healing closure of bringing the remanis home. Somehow the shadow of the bayonet on the sacred ground where the guards pace and protect the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier adds poignancy to the scene. Perhaps it is the absolute precision of the guard's movements to have such a perfect image. Perhaps it reminds us of some ghostly bayonet carried by the soldier now lying in the tomb.
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• 

  16 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  We have all known heroes in our lives, so when we come here, we recognize our own heroes in the valor, and it helps us appreciate this unknown soldier. It feels good to witness the solemnity of the way the Unknown Soldiers are honored. All stand for the changing of the guard which is done with the absolute precision and dedication of the highest order. Your mind comes back to your own memories of touching life and death, and it brings you closer to appreciating the enormity of the sacrifice of the persons here and of all their comrades.

• 

  16 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  ...who will fight for the right they adore. Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men, and I'll soon give you ten thousand more. Bolder and bolder, they grow as they go to the foe. Then there's nothing in this world can halt or mar their plan. When ten thousand men, stick together man to man." My dad, a hero with the Marines at Tarawa in WWII, taught me this song long ago. I don't know who wrote it, but it always seemed to epitomize the comaraderie seen on every great military face.

• 

  15 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  Arlington National Cemetery is a place of unexpected and stunning beauty. The simplicity and symmetry of the rows of simple gravestones belies the irony of youth stolen from the strongest as soldiers fall. Generations of our finest who served in our nation's conflicts now lie together as comrades in death. I have been here a few times in my life, as a teen, as a young adult, in middle years and now at age 60. Each time I fall in love with these men and women who died and am touched by unexpected and stunning emotions of new gratitude.

• 

  15 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  Go to Arlington National Cemetery at least several times in your lifetime. Each time will feel different because you are different, but each time will feel the same because it is about simple truths that do not change: honor, courage, devotion, and sacrifice. Imagine if you were the mother or father whose son died in war but whose body was never recovered. Here at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, every such parent wonders if it is indeed his son who lies here, but knows that his son is worthy of this devotion and honor. The sacrifice eases just slightly.

• 

  15 June 2008
  From:
  Anne Beach

  Arlington National Cemetery is a place of unexpected and stunning beauty. The simplicity and symmetry of the rows of simple gravestones belies the irony of youth stolen from the strongest as soldiers fall. "In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility- I welcome it. " Words of John F. Kennedy carved at his gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. Picture is from the Kennedy gravesite overlooking the graves of countless others who did not shrink from 'maximum danger.'