Memorial Day

[NoviVespa]

Memorial Day is fast approaching. I was wondering about places that are held in special honor. I can think of three very special places.

Arlington National Cemetery
Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor
The cemetery at Normandy

Feel free to add one of your very special places.

And, state if you have been to one of those places.

In my case, I have been to Arlington National Cemetery and wittnessed the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The most solemn place and event I have ever seen.

[Kurt Cobain]

Punch Bowl in Honolulu. They have a wonderful monument to all of those killed in action in South Pacific and Asian wars and conflicts.

[DavidM]

Walk the fields of Antietam or Gettysburg, truly hollowed ground. I was in Sharpsburg last weekend.

The Alamo would be another place were one would feel the history of what brave men gave for this country.

I've been to Arlington National Cemetery many times. I was there when my wife's father was laid to rest. Nothing more powerful that a full military funeral.

[Hardscrabble]

Shilo/Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee...

I'm assuming it's still out in the middle of no-where...

[PDC]

Shilo/Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee...

I'm assuming it's still out in the middle of no-where...

The late, great Shelby Foote had said that Shilo is the best preserved of all Civil War battlefields. I would love to visit it in early April one of these years.

[Sea Fury]

Pearl Harbor. Today you can tour the Arizona Memorial, where the war officially began for the U.S., and the mighty U.S.S. Missouri, where the war officially ended, in the same afternoon. "Mighty Mo" is anchored right there next to the sunken remains of the Arizona. And, if you know where to look, the old battlewagon/target ship Utah, also sunk during the attack, is still on the bottom on the other side of Ford Island.

I would also add Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral, but I understand how not everyone here would agree with that opinion.

[boomer]

Pearl Harbor. Today you can tour the Arizona Memorial, where the war officially began for the U.S., and the mighty U.S.S. Missouri, where the war officially ended, in the same afternoon. "Mighty Mo" is anchored right there next to the sunken remains of the Arizona. And, if you know where to look, the old battlewagon/target ship Utah, also sunk during the attack, is still on the bottom on the other side of Ford Island.

I would also add Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral, but I understand how not everyone here would agree with that opinion.

[Sea Fury]

Excellent pictures, boomer.

Actually all of the surviving battleships are places where sacrifices were made and deserve mention. In addition the the "Mighty Mo" at Pearl, the U.S.S. Alabama is displayed in Mobil, AL; U.S.S. North Carolina at Wilmington, NC; U.S.S. Massachusetts ("Big Mamie") at Fall River, Mass.; U.S.S. New Jersey at Camden, NJ; U.S.S. Wisconsin ("Wisky") at Norfolk, VA; and U.S.S. Texas (last surving Dreadnought-era battlewagon) at San Jacinto Battleground, East of Houston, TX are preserved as museum ships. Last I heard the U.S.S. Iowa is anchored at Suisun Bay, CA, awaiting assignment as a museum ship. These are 8 of the 9 existing battleships above water; the last is the pre-Dreadnought battleship Mikasa which is set in concrete in Yokosuka, Japan.


U.S.S. Missouri off Okinawa, April 11, 1945.

[boomer]

If I did this right you can see the Utah here. I believe they are working on a memorial for the U.S.S Oklahoma on Ford Island as well.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=21.367842~-157.961592&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

[KevMcNJ]

Walk the fields of Antietam or Gettysburg, truly hollowed ground. I was in Sharpsburg last weekend.

I was gonna say Little Round Top.

[turnrightgoleft]

My favorite is the local cemetary when the Legion comes on Monday morning at 9:55 a.m.

They put out a schedule in your local paper and they hit it pretty close, don't be very late, and take your kids. And thank them, as well. And they love to give the cartridge casings to the kids.

[SamC]

I have been to Arlington many times, and to the Punchbowl once. A great contrast. Arlington National Cemetery is all pomp and circumstance. A working cemetery in a big city. Certainly the nation's military cemetery and all of that. Toruists riding trams.

The Punchbowl, properly the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, or in Hawaiian Puowaina, meaning "hill of sacrifice", is a different place. Here are memorialized the darker Asian side of America's wars, where the laws of nations and the rules of war were never followed. Nearly 29,000 names of those missing or burried at sea. Nearly 4500 bodies unidentified from North Korea. A quiet and solumn place without pomp.

Both important places all should visit.

As, if you have the opertunity, the American Cemetery in Normandy or any of the several others in western Europe. Unlike the British (and thus Canadian, etc) practice of premanently burying soldiers near where they fell, the US repatriated bodies after the war on request. While many families made the decision to not "disturb" their loved ones, many of those who remain do so because they had no really close relatives.

BTW, if you know of anyone actually buried in Arlington, you can get a pass to visit the grave and see the 95% of the place that tourists never do. Its worth doing.

[SoDak_IndyFan]

You can also go to your home town cemetery. Plenty of heroes there, just about wherever "there" is.

[ndcrs]

the indiana war memorial is one of the few places that gives me chills (not monument circle). it is located about 4 blocks north on the east side of Meridian in Indy. there is a museam, but i would go directly up the stairs to the shrine room. when you get there, try to tell me you didn't get chills also. btw, it's free.

[ZOOOM]

Except for Kennedy's and the tomb of the unknowns, the most visited grave in Arlington is Audie Murphy's....

Arizona Memorial is my all time favorite. Absolutely hallowed ground.

ZOOOM