When I made my plans to go to DC this year, I did forget that some of the stuff that we planned to do on out visit wasn't actually in DC, but in Virginia.
Arlington National Cemetery is located in Virginia.
Arlington was not one of those places that I have always wanted to go to, until I was an adult. When I started volunteering during the Wreaths Across America in 2019 I became more interested in our Knoxville National Cemetery, and it's history. The thing about National Cemeteries is that once you start learning about them you will get to know about Arlington pretty quickly.
Once I learned about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and that it's been guarded by someone from our armed forces 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, since 1937, I had to go.
I have a very deep appreciation for those who have served in our armed forces. My dad was in the army during the Vietnam War, my grandpa served during the Korean War, and I know that I have many other family members that have served as far back as the Revolutionary War. I love being able to Honor those who served, and died, to give us the freedoms and liberties that we have today. So, learning more about this beautiful final resting places for so many members of our Military, and their families, was a privilege for me.
What I did not expect at the tomb of the unknown soldier was how incredibly quiet it was there. There is one guard who does everything in sets of 21. There are 21 step taken to cross the entirety of the tomb. He turns towards to tomb and wait 21 seconds. He turns and faces the direction he just walked from, changed this firearm to the other shoulder, and once he is done waits 21 seconds. Then takes another 21 steps and does the whole process over and over again.
He did this for 30 minutes straight.
We watched for 30 minutes straight.
That was not the plan. We got there right as they changed the guard. We planned to go get some pictures, then go walk around at some other historical headstones and monuments nearby, and then come back when it was a little closer to time. We did not expect to watch this dutiful solider make the same path over and over again for 30 minutes. It was something that I could not stop watching.
No one said a word, until they did the changing of the guard.
Which was special in it's own right. I do not know how many times a Sentinel Guards get to have at that post, but from my very limited knowledge of the post, they have to go through months of strict training. So, seeing the guards being able to change the for the post, it amazing. I am sure if know exactly what they had to go through and train for, I would be more impressed 10 times over. For all I know, they could only get one more shot at it if they wanted to.
Plus, I feel so much pride for those who guard the tomb because over the years, the guard were given opportunities to leave the post because of dangerous weather conditions, and or matter of national security. They were given permission to leave, and there has not been one time that anyone has left the tomb unguarded for any amount of time.
Now, in the last post I talked about how God restored two things for me on this trip, one of them being the statue at the Bible Museum, the other one was here at Arlington.
The Argonne Cross.
The original plan as part of my European trip in 2025 was to go to the Meuses- Argone Cemetery in France. It's where man of the American men who lost their life in that battle are buried. The government tired after World War I to get many of the soldiers that were buried on foreign soil back to the states. Again, do to my lack of knowledge on the subject, not many of the soldiers were able to have their remains returned. I know that the ones were did return were on the request of their next of kin. However, I don't know if the next of kin had to help financially get those remains back, but there are thousands of soldier who are still resting in peace in France.
The Meuses- Argone Cemetery was one of the two places I was looking forward to most for that trip.
The WWI Cemetery has to do with the book I am writing. There is a character in the book that dies during battle in WWI and I had to research a very specific time a battle was taking place and work off of that iformation. Which is how I discover the Meuses -Argone Offensive. What I really discovered was there isn't a lot of history the has been written about WWI compared to WWII. Even with the Meuses-Argone Offensive being the most deadly battle during WWI, I never heard of it until I started writing this book. So, I was so excited at the possibility of seeing it with my own eyes. So, it's very sad that I didn't get to go to a place that has weirdly become so meaningful to me.
So it only hurt that much more not being able to go there.
God is funny in how He works sometimes.
We had planned to go to Arlington from the beginning. What was not part of the original plan was to take the hop on hope off bus around the Cemetery. The only reason that we did, is because I had left over points that were going to expire on my viator app, and I needed a fairly cheap excursion to use them on. The points all but covered all but a few dollars of the bus ride. Had we not taken the bus, we wouldn't have gotten around the whole park like we did, cause it was very hot, and there is a very good chance we would have turned around and no ever seen the white cross dedicated to those who fought and died during World War I. A cross named after the very battle that most men lost their lives in and the same battle that a character I wrote also now associated with.
I would have never known that it was there.
Even better, is that the memorial was a cross. God's way of redeeming the world was the same symbol used not only for my own life to be saved at 14, but restored a moment that I mourned not having.
I love that God did those two things for me, even though He did not have to, and I did not ask him to. I still hold hope that I will one day get to those places and see them, experience them, a maybe shed a tear or two at how much sweeter the moment I will get will be than what I though I should have experienced.
As for now, I am so thankful that I got to go on such a wonderful trip, and I look forward to see all of the wonderful states that our country has, and will remember the reason I get to explore my country in freedom is because of those who sacrificed their lives for us.
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