Free Republic

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on April 9, 2019, at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C. Every headstone at Arlington tells a story. These are tales of heroes, I thought, as I placed the toe of my combat boot against the white marble. I pulled a miniature American flag out of my assault pack and pushed it three inches into the ground at my heel. I stepped aside to inspect it, making sure it met the standard that we had briefed to our troops: “vertical and perpendicular to...

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...

(CLICK THE LINK FOR A PREVIEW OF THE BOOK) This book is a compilation of the personal remembrances of twenty-two former members of The Old Guard who participated in President Kennedy’s State Funeral in November 1963. The seven parts of this book are arranged in the chronological order in which the major ceremonial events took place: (1) Planning and Preparation, (2) Andrews AFB and Bethesda Naval Hospital, (3) Events at The White House, (4) The Capitol Building, (5) Saint Matthew’s Cathedral, (6) Arlington National Cemetery, and (7) The Gravesite and events after the burial. This compilation of twenty-two personal memoirs...

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...