recent photo I took at the Tomb of the Unknown Soilder
Memorial Day 2007

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young Service man saluted it,
And then he stood at ease.

Sally Jane - Arlington President Kennedy's Grave April 2007

I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.

Korean War Memorial this was the second Memorial we visited when we moved to D.C.
Lincoln was the first. I will never forget how I felt when I read this on the wall.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

Annie Kate at the Vietnam War Memorial July 2006

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.

Sally Jane at Iwo Jima Fall 2006

I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"
When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

Eve of Christmas Eve 2006 Adam and Lisa World War II Memorial


I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.

Eulogy for a Veteran
Author Unknown

my first photo of the capitol when we moved here
"Any nation that does not honor its hero's
will not long endure."
- Abraham Lincoln

ways to celebrate Memorial Day (I found this list on this site)

• by visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.

• by visiting memorials.
• 
  
• by flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.

• by flying the 'POW/MIA Flag' as well (Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act).

• by participating in a "National Moment of Remembrance": at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.

• by renewing a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our falled dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.