Free Republic

The federal government may have shut its doors due to weather conditions — but the guards tasked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier aren’t so quick to abandon their posts. With what’s being billed as the storm of the season dumping inches of snow on the Washington, D.C., region, leaving a cloud of closures in its wake — Capitol Hill, area schools, airports, Metro bus service and almost all government offices in Maryland, the capital city and Virginia — the stalwart sentries for some of America’s most revered military sites stand tall and fast. The Society of the Honor...

There was a quiet and peaceful stillness about the cemetery this January day. It was snowing heavily and the pristine white was accumulating between thousands of rows of headstones marking the graves of our true heroes who gave their lives in battle or died in old age, having served our country for decades, fighting enemies to preserve our freedom. A very old general was being buried that day and the Honor Guard and the ceremonial horses were barely visible in the heavy snow. I could hear the cadence of the steps and the horse hooves beating rhythmically against the asphalt....

Google mapping out 400,000 graves at Arlington Cemetery to create virtual walking tour.....

Written By Those Who Were There [...] This JFK Funeral history project was begun in order to record and preserve this valuable information while it was still available. The four organizers of the Project learned from reading the various accounts they were assembling into this collection, that each individual participant in the State Funeral saw only a small piece of the whole event, and by collecting numerous individual pieces, the whole picture becomes visible. No single person witnessed the entire funeral. This unique collection of personal memoirs is intended to portray the events of the State Funeral as seen through...

Jeff Kuhner Podcast: An immature girl takes a crude photo at the Arlington National Cemetry, and now people are calling for her to be fired from her job.

The troop hating Westboro Church will be at Arlington Cemetery this coming Wednesday, July 11 at 12:15PM. They are usually next to the Metro entrance on the south side of Memorial Drive. If you can make it, you need to bring flags and troop support signs and plenty of water. Meet on the north side (entrance side to Arlington) of Memorial Drive.

"It is requested that everyone maintains a level of silence and respect",says the soldier as he stops in stance and demands silence from a disrespectful crowd w/ rifle out front. You could have heard a dime drop that day. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c59_1320722129

I spent my final few months in the Army as the NCO in charge of military funerals. For those that don’t know, our veterans have the option of having full military honors at their funerals. This entails the famous 21 Gun Salute, military pallbearers, and of course the flag draped coffin which is folded graveside and presented to the family. This was probably the toughest assignment I had during my five years of Army service. Supervising the details of the funeral wasn’t what was hard – what was hard was presenting the flag to the grieving family. As a veteran,...

"Arlington National Cemetery became the nation's most hallowed burial ground when a Union officer decided in 1861 that the best place to inter Civil War dead was on the grounds of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's plantation, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.".... ...."Now there is Section 60, the area set aside for servicemen and women who have died serving in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade. It's on the outskirts of the cemetery, among tombstones rarely seen by visitors. They lie far from the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, outside of...

<p>Fox News has just reported that a suspect connected with the suspicious parked car at the Pentagon is a Marine Lance Corporal Reservist. The police have described him as "a derranged man," but do not think he is part of a terrorist group. The guy is 22/23 years old, an African American, and a muslim.</p>

Arlington Cemetery: Hallowed Ground Memorial Day is a time to honor and remember those who have died in combat. And Arlington National Cemetery brings home the stark realities of war. LIFE.com has published a series of photos from the historic cemetery that capture both the grand scale and the intimacy of this most hallowed place.

On Monday, the nation honored Col. William M. Bower, the last surviving pilot of the April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid, the risky surprise attack on the Japanese home islands that bolstered American morale in the early, tragic months of World War II. Col. Bower died Jan. 10 at age 93 and was laid to rest Monday at Arlington National Cemetery. The Doolittle Raid was one of the gutsiest calls ever made by a president. Shortly after the Dec. 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a directive that the United States hit the Japanese homeland as soon as...

The US Army has rejected a request for ethnic Hmong leader Vang Pao to be buried with full military honours in Arlington National Cemetery. Gen Pao led a 15-year CIA-sponsored secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War and, when it was lost, led tens of thousands of his people into exile. He died last month. The army's decision came as mourners attended the first day of a six-day funeral in California. Gen Pao's friends said they would appeal to the White House. "Obviously to everyone who is here today to honour Gen Vang Pao, this is very disappointing," said...

Lance Cpl. Terry Honeycutt, a 19-year-old, was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan in late October. The funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Monday at New Life Church in La Plata. Phelps-Roper said she plans to picket from 9:15 a.m. to the start of the service with a group of six to seven members of the Westboro Baptist Church. The Honeycutt family was made aware of the planned protest via Facebook on Friday, but Terry’s mother Christine is not concerned about the picketers. “We kind of expected it,” she said. “We’ve seen it before and read about,...

People ask why we counter Westboro “Baptist” Church, why not just let them be the proverbial “If a tree falls in a forest and no hears it, did it fall”? BELOW is why we counter them. FReepers, students, patriots and Veteran Harley riders (about 50) defended our Fallen Heroes this Veterans Day at Arlington Cemetery. We came by the dozens and overwhelmed Fred Phelps’ one-branch family tree called Westboro “Baptist” Church. They started the morning with about a dozen miscreants. Two hours later when they left, only 3 had stayed around. A special thanks to those who took their shift...

VETERANS DAY, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 8AM TILL NOON Westboro Baptist Church, aka Fred Phelp's one-branch family tree, is once again targeting Arlington Cemetery. WBC will be there on Veterans Day, Thursday, Nov. 11, to protest our fallen heroes. We will be there from 8AM (to start setting up) till noon to be sure our patriotic message is seen long after WBC leaves. WBC will be there from 9 till 11AM The DC Chapter will have our Walter Reed MOAB, flags, banners, posters, patriotic music, HOT COFFEE, and light snacks. Our past 4 times opposite WBC have been at the Arlington...

The DC Chapter started gathering at 3:30, unloading flags, banners, signs and a sound system. We expected Westboro Baptist Church to arrive at 4:30 but they arrived at 4. We responded by setting up quicker. DC Chapter members were Lurker Bill, Cindy_True_Supporter, GunsAreOK, RongKirby, [Mrs] Trooprally and myself. We were joined by a mother and her two kids who were walking by, 5 other patriots who heard about our rally, 3 Marine wives from Quantico, a guy in a wheel chair, and 6 Vietnam Vets on their Harleys. They did not claim to be part of Rolling Thunder or Patriot...

Westboro Church has Arlington Cemetery in their sites on Tuesday, October 5,2010, 4:30 - 5:30PM. The DC Chapter is working on a permit to show our support for our fallen heroes and to counter the one-branch family tree called Phelps. We will be getting our permit from 3:30 - 6:30PM. In the past Phelps has permitted right outside Metro's Blue Line entrance. Until further notice that is where we will be. We will be keeping an eye on Westboro's schedule since they do change their schedule. Best way to get to Arlington Cemetery is to take the Metro blue line...

Before a small group of family and friends, the remains of World War I United States Marine First Sergeant George H. Humphrey were buried at Arlington National Cemetery on June 23, 2010. He received full military honors. Humphrey went Missing In Action on September 15, 1918, while leading the first United States attack of the war against the Germans, under the direction of General John J. Pershing. The battle was later recognized as the St. Mihiel Offensive. During this combat, 7,000 allies died. Consequently, this war coined the phrase "D-Day," and was the first time American units used tanks. First...

After 19 years of service as Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, John C. Metzler, Jr. will retire effective Friday, July 2, 2010, due to an ongoing investigation of gross "mismanagement," involving the misplacement of graves, unidentified bodies and sloppy record-keeping at the cemetery. Mr. Metzler first came to Arlington National Cemetery in 1951, as a young boy (age 4), when his father, John C. Metzler, Sr. became the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery. John C. Metzler, Sr. was ANC's Superintendent from 1951 to 1972. John Metzler, Sr. passed away in May 1990. Growing up at Arlington National Cemetery gave John...