Part 1 – Lion Tess
The morning of December 16, 2017 was cold, brisk and sunny. My sister, niece & I had volunteered to help place the wreaths on the graves at Arlington Cemetery along with the hundreds of others.
We started out on the metro at West Falls Church-near my niece’s house, but we had to wait for several metro trains before we could get on one. Then we waited another 25 minutes to get into the cemetery. We also had to wait in long lines to pick up the wreaths from the wreath trucks. Finally we took the wreaths to 3 graves and left them. We went back to the trucks several times for more wreaths. At one point we found 3 wreathless graves that were actually wives of military that were laid to rest. They also have served our country in their own way. In the process we had laid some on Marylanders to honor our home state.
At this point we were near the JFK burial site, as we walked up to it some of the Kennedy family arrived and had a wreath laying service. They moved to the site of RFK and then to Teddy’s grave and did a small ceremony at each one.
These graves were each a little to the left of JFK and marked only with a white cross. The crowd we had been following continued on with us in tow to the USS MAINE MAST MEMORIAL, the actual mast from the USS MAINE. It was there to honor the dead from a mysterious explosion that destroyed the USS MAINE as it was docked in Havana Harbor on Feb 15, 1898 killing the sailors and marines that were on board at the time. Some of the bodies are buried here and some are buried at the Key West Florida Cemetery. After that small ceremony we moved to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the noon changing of the guard along with a wreath laying ceremony. Wreaths Across America, the sponsor of the wreath laying event, actually laid the wreath on the Tomb.
Meanwhile the President’s Helicopter flew past!
We then went back to my niece’s house and picked up my brother-in-law and niece’s husband, and made our way into DC for dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill which was very, very good. Afterwards we ventured out to look at the National Christmas Tree and other holiday lighting around town.
I would highly recommend participating in this event if you have the opportunity.
Lion Tess Gladhill
Part 2 – Lion Barbara
Lions Wayne, Bobbie, Chris, Jenny and myself all piled into Wayne’s SUV and headed down to the metro station around 7:30 Saturday morning.
I handed out a few extra metro cards, we increased the fare on them and headed through the turnstiles. Well, everyone went through the turnstiles except me! My card wouldn’t work. So to make a long story short….After missing the Metro at Shady Grove, getting lost in a crowd of people at least twice, I finally caught up with the rest of the Lions.
We must have arrived at Arlington later than Lion Tess and her group because we did not encounter the long lines that she did. After decorating a few graves with wreaths we walked around and found Jenny’s father’s grave and Bobbie’s parent’s grave. We ran into crowds on our way back at the metro station. I just kept my eye on the yellow Lion vests and did not get lost!
It was a beautiful, cold day. And in my opinion it was also a very reverent experience. Like Lion Tess said “I would highly recommend participating in this event if you have the opportunity.”
Lion Barbara Barry